to stake all I have in converting ninety out of every hundred American business men whom I could take to Petrograd for two weeks.

It is needless for me to tell you that most of the stories that have come from Russia regarding atrocities, horrors, immorality, are manufactured in Viborg, Helsingfors, or Stockholm.  The horrible massacres planned for last November were first learned of in Petrograd from the Helsingfors papers.  That anybody could even for a moment believe in the nationalization of women seems impossible to anyone in Petrograd.  To-day Petrograd is an orderly city—­probably the only city of the world of its size without police.  Bill Shatov, chief of police, and I were at the opera the other night to hear Chaliapine sing in Boris Gudonov.  He excused himself early because he said there had been a robbery the previous night, in which a man had lost 5,000 rubles, that this was the first robbery in several weeks, and that he had an idea who had done it, and was going to get the men that night.  I feel personally that Petrograd is safer than Paris.  At night there are automobiles, sleighs, and people on the streets at 12 o’clock to a much greater extent than was true in Paris when I left five weeks ago.

Most wonderful of all, the great crowd of prostitutes has disappeared.  I have seen not a disreputable woman since I went to Petrograd, and foreigners who have been there for the last three months report the same.  The policy of the present government has resulted in eliminating throughout Russia, I am told, this horrible outgrowth of modern civilization.

Begging has decreased.  I have asked to be taken to the poorest parts of the city to see how the people in the slums live, and both the communists and bourgeoisie have held up their hands and said, “But you fail to understand there are no such places.”  There is poverty, but it is scattered and exists among those of the former poor or of the former rich who have been unable to adapt themselves to the conditions which require everyone to do something.

Terrorism has ended.  For months there have been no executions, I am told, and certainly people go to the theater and church and out on the streets as much as they would in any city of the world.

(Certain memoranda referred to in the hearing relating to the work of Capt.  Pettit in Russia are here printed in full as follows:)

     MEMORANDUM

     From:  W.W.  Pettit
     To:  Ammission, Paris.

     (Attention of Mr. Bullitt.)

1. Mr. Pettit’s recent movements.—­On March 18 I left Helsingfors for Petrograd and remained there until March 28 when I left for Helsingfors, at which place I received a cable ordering me to report immediately to Paris.  On the 29th I left again for Petrograd to secure some baggage I had left.  On the 21st I left Petrograd for Helsingfors.  On April 1st