Perhaps an argument can be made for this new rule of warfare, but it is at once apparent that it is the most startling proposal brought forth in modern times in the direction of disarmament.

It meant that Great Britain should abandon that agency of warfare with which she had destroyed Napoleon, and with which she expected to destroy Germany in the prevailing struggle--the blockade.
From a defensive standpoint, Colonel House's proposed reform would have been a great advantage to Britain, for an honourable observance of the rule would have insured the British people its food supply in wartime.
With Great Britain, however, the blockade has been historically an offensive measure: it is the way in which England has always made war.
Just what reception this idea would have had with official London, in April, 1915, had Colonel House been able to present it as his own proposal, is not clear, but the Germans, with characteristic stupidity, prevented the American from having a fair chance.

The Berlin Foreign Office at once cabled to Count Bernstorff and Bernhard Dernburg--the latter a bovine publicity agent who was then promoting the German cause in the American press--with instructions to start a "propaganda" in behalf of the "freedom of the seas." By the time Colonel House reached London, therefore, these four words had been adorned with the Germanic label.

British statesmen regarded the suggestion as coming from Germany and not from America, and the reception was worse than cold.
And another tragedy now roughly interrupted President Wilson's attempts at mediation.

Page's letters have disclosed that he possessed almost a clairvoyant faculty of foreseeing approaching events.