Events were now moving with the utmost rapidity.

On January 9th, a council of German military chieftains was held at Pless; in this it was decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare.

On January 16th the Zimmermann-Mexico telegram was intercepted; this informed Bernstorff, among other things, that this decision had been made.

On January 16th, at nine o'clock in the morning, the American Embassy in London began receiving a long cipher despatch from Washington.

The preamble announced that the despatch contained a copy of an address which the President proposed to deliver before the Senate "in a few days." Page was directed to have copies of the address "secretly prepared" and to hand them to the British Foreign Office and to newspapers of the type of the Nation, the Daily News, and the Manchester Guardian--all three newspapers well known for their Pacifist tendencies.