Responsibility in such matters is single not joint; absolute not relative." This reply gave satisfaction to both the United States and the countries of the Allies, and Page himself regarded it as a master stroke.

"The more I think of it," he wrote on May 17th, "the better the strategy of the President appears, in his latest (and last) note to Germany.

They laid a trap for him and he caught them in their own trap.

The Germans had tried to 'put it up' to the President to commit the first unfriendly act.

He now 'puts it up' to them.