IA

Senator KNOX. What was your mission to Russia, and when did you go?

Mr. BULLITT. I was ordered to go to Russia on the 18th of February. I
received the following order from Secretary Lansing [reading]:

AMERICAN COMMISSION TO NEGOTIATE PEACE,

18 February, 1919.

MR. WILLIAM C. BULLITT,
American Commission to Negotiate Peace.

SIR: You are hereby directed to proceed to Russia for the
purpose of studying conditions, political and economic,
therein, for the benefit of the American commissioners
plenipotentiary to negotiate peace, and all American
diplomatic and consular officials are hereby directed to
extend to you the proper courtesies and facilities to enable
you to fulfill the duties of your mission.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

ROBERT LANSING,
Secretary of State of the United States of America.
[SEAL.]

Senator KNOX. What is the date of that?

Mr. BULLITT. February 18, 1919. I also received at the same time from
Mr. Joseph C. Grew, the secretary of the American commission, the
following [reading]:

AMERICAN COMMISSION TO NEGOTIATE PEACE,

18 February, 1919.

To whom it may concern:

I hereby certify that Mr. William C. Bullitt has been
authorized by the American commissioners plenipotentiary to
negotiate peace to proceed to Russia, for the purpose of
studying conditions, political and economic, therein, for
the benefit of the commission, and I bespeak for him the
proper courtesies and facilities in enabling him to fulfill
the duties of his mission.

J.C. GREW,
Secretary of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace.
[SEAL.]

Senator KNOX. You say you started in February. What time in February?

Mr. BULLITT. I left on the 22d day of February.

Senator KNOX. Did you know at that time, or have you ascertained
since, whether a secret mission had or not been dispatched from Paris,
that is, by the President himself; a man by the name of Buckler, who
went to Russia a few days before you did?

Mr. BULLITT. Mr. W.H. Buckler, Mr. Henry White's half brother. He was
an attache of the American embassy in London. He was ordered from
there to go, about the 1st of January, to Stockholm, to confer with
Litvinov, who had been the Ambassador of the Soviet Government to
London--the British had allowed him to stay there without actually
recognizing his offi