This was a conviction from which he never departed.

Count Bernstorff was industriously creating the impression in the United States that his dismissal would immediately cause war between Germany and the United States, and there is little doubt that the Administration accepted this point of view.

But Page believed that this was nothing but Prussian bluff.

The severance of diplomatic relations at that time, in Page's opinion, would have convinced the Germans of the hopelessness of their cause.

In spite of the British blockade, Germany was drawing enormous quantities of food supplies from the United States, and without these supplies she could not maintain indefinitely her resistance.