But by February, 1917, things had gone too far.

For Germany had now decided to stake everything upon the chance of winning a quick victory with the submarine.

Our policy had persuaded the Kaiser's advisers that America would not intervene; and the likelihood of rapidly starving Great Britain was so great--indeed the Germans had reduced the situation to a mathematical calculation of success--that an American declaration of war seemed to Berlin to be a matter of no particular importance.

The American Ambassador in London regarded Bernstorff's dismissal much more seriously.

It justified the interpretations of events which he had been sending to Mr.Wilson, Colonel House, and others for nearly three years.
If Page had been inclined to take satisfaction in the fulfilment of his own prophecies, Germany's disregard of her promises and the American declaration of war would have seemed an ample justification of his course as ambassador.
[Illustration: Walter H.Page, at the time of America's entry into the war, April, 1917] [Illustration: Resolution passed by the two Houses of Parliament, April 18, 1917, on America's entry into the war] But Page had little time for such vain communings.