Some political excitement has been caused both here and in
America by statements made to the Foreign Relations Com- mittee of the American Senate by Mi. William Bullitt. Mr. Bullitt told the Senate that he visited Russia with the draft of a ?racticable peace with the Bolsheviks drawn up by Colonel Rouse and Mr. Philip Kerr, Mr. Lloyd George's private secretary. Ile returned from Russia with proposals from Lenin which resembled the proposals of Colonel House and Mr. Kerr so nearly that they were " very seriously discussed " by Mr. Lloyd George, General Smuts and Colonel House. He said that i".'olonel House in particular was enthusiastic in favour of accept- ing Lenin's proposals. President Wilson, however, disapproved of Lenin's conditions. Mr. Bullitt, furiously urging his case against Mr. Wilson—his fallen idol—compared Mr. Wilson's coldness with the sympathy shown by Mr. Lloyd George towards the plan of coming to terms with the Bolsheviks. He also told the Foreign Relations Committee that Mr. Lloyd George asked him to breakfast, and on that occasion " secured all the details of the situation."
