Paris Peace Conference 184.022/29
Mr. Henry White and General Tasker H. Bliss, Commissioners Plenipotentiary to Negotiate Peace, to the Secretary-General of the Commission to Negotiate Peace (Grew)
Dear Mr. Grew: On the 16th inst. our attention was called to a letter, which we then saw for the first time, signed by you and dated February 18th, 1919,78 which appeared in print at the foot of pages 1, 2, 3 and 4 [page 1234] of Volume 2 of the Hearings Before the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate (the Bullitt testimony).79
In that letter you “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, etc., etc.”
As we neither had nor could find any record, official or otherwise, showing that the subject of Mr. Bullitt’s trip to Russia had ever been discussed or in any way considered at a meeting of the American Commissioners Plenipotentiary to Negotiate Peace, we asked you on the morning of the following day (the 17th inst.) what record you had which warranted the certificate given to Mr. Bullitt in your letter of February 18th, 1919, and which certificate is quoted in paragraph 2 above.
Later in that same day, after making a careful search, you informed us that there was no record of any action having been taken by the American Delegates. You further stated that, to the best of your recollection, you were directed to write the letter by Mr. Lansing and that, in doing so, you employed the form habitually used in furnishing a letter of credentials to anyone dispatched on a mission by the American Plenipotentiaries.
We, the undersigned, desire now to make of record in the archives of the American Peace Delegation the fact that at no time was the mission of Mr. Bullitt discussed—much less acted upon—in our presence, either at any meeting of the American Delegation or elsewhere; nor did we know anything of Mr. Bullitt’s intended journey until after his departure.
In writing the above, we beg you to understand that we do not, in the slightest degree, criticise your action in writing the above mentioned [Page 98] letter; because, in the light of all the facts known to us your action, as the American Secretary-General, was natural and proper.
Yours very sincerely,
- Henry White
- Tasker H. Bliss