revelled in such minute details as ultimate destination, the continuous voyage as applied to conditional contraband, the searching of cargoes upon the high seas, belligerent trading through neutral ports, war zones, orders in council, and all the other jargon of maritime rights in time of war.  These topics engrossed him as completely as the extension of democracy and the significance of British-American cooeperation engrossed all the thoughts of Page and Grey.

That Page took this larger view is evident from the communications which he now began sending to the President.  One that he wrote on October 15, 1915, is especially to the point.  The date is extremely important; so early had Page formulated the standards that should guide the United States and so early had he begun his work of attempting to make President Wilson understand the real nature of the conflict.  The position which Page now assumed was one from which he never departed.

     To the President

In this great argument about shipping I cannot help being alarmed because we are getting into deep water uselessly.  The Foreign Office has yielded unquestioningly to all our requests and has shown the sincerest wish to meet all our suggestions, so long as it is not called upon to admit war materials into Germany.  It will not give way to us in that.  We would not yield it if we were in their place.  Neither would the Germans.  England will risk a serious quarrel or even hostilities with us rather than yield.  You may look upon this as the final word.

Since the last lists of contraband and conditional contraband were published, such materials as rubber and copper and petroleum have developed entirely new uses in war.  The British simply will not let Germany import them.  Nothing that can be used for war purposes in Germany now will be used for anything else.  Representatives of Spain, Holland, and all the Scandinavian states agree that they can do nothing but acquiesce and file protests and claims, and they admit that Great Britain has the right to revise the list of contraband.  This is not a war in the sense in which we have hitherto used that word.  It is a world-clash of systems of government, a struggle to the extermination of English civilization or of Prussian military autocracy.  Precedents have gone to the scrap heap.  We have a new measure for military and diplomatic action.  Let us suppose that we press for a few rights to which the shippers have a theoretical claim.  The American people gain nothing and the result is friction with this country; and that is what a very small minority of the agitators in the United States would like.  Great Britain can any day close the Channel to all shipping or can drive Holland to the enemy and blockade her ports.

Let us take a little farther view into the future.  If Germany win, will it make any difference what position Great Britain took on