In 1905 he said that the Protocols were given to him by a prominent Russian conservative whose name he did not mention, and who in turn had received them from an unnamed woman who had stolen them from "one of the most influential leaders of Freemasonry at the close of a secret meeting of the initiated in France." Then, several years later, Nilus wrote that his friend himself had stolen the Protocols from "the headquarters of the Society of Zion in France." Several years afterwards, in a new edition of his book, Nilus said that the "Protocols" came from Switzerland and not from France.

This time he named his Russian conservative friend, Sukhotin, who had died in the meantime.

He added that the Protocols were not Jewish-Masonic but Zionist documents secretly read at the Zionist Congress in Basle in 1897.
Then followed a new edition of the Nilus book bearing the date of 1917.
A translation of this edition has recently appeared in this country, containing a brand-new explanation as to how the Protocols were rescued and given to the world.

This explanation is taken from the German version published in Charlottenburg.

The introduction to that edition says that the Protocols, having been read from day to day at the Basle Congress, were sent as read to Frankfort on the Main.