Mr.Shoecraft excitedly left the room; half way downstairs he met Admiral William Reginald Hall, the head of the British Naval Intelligence, who was hurrying up to the Ambassador.

Admiral Hall, as he spied Mr.Shoecraft, stopped abruptly and uttered just two words: "Thank God!" He then went into the Ambassador's room and read a secret code message which he had just received from Captain Gaunt, the British naval attache at Washington.

It was as follows: "Bernstorff has just been given his passports.

I shall probably get drunk to-night!" It was in this way that Page first learned that the long tension had passed.
Page well understood that the dismissal of Bernstorff at that time meant war with the Central Empires.

Had this dismissal taken place in 1915, after the sinking of the _Lusitania_, or in 1916, after the sinking of the _Sussex_, Page believed that a simple break in relations would in itself have brought the war to an early end.