"That is to raze the whole building, with its archives and papers, to the ground, and begin all over again." This state of affairs in Washington explains the curious fact that the real diplomatic history of the United States and Great Britain during this great crisis is not to be found in the archives of the State Department, for the official documents on file there consist of the most routine telegrams, which are not particularly informing, but in the Ambassador's personal correspondence with the President, Colonel House, and a few other intimates.

The State Department did not have the first requisite of a properly organized foreign office, for it could not be trusted with confidential information.

The Department did not tell Page what it was doing, but it apparently told the whole world what Page was doing.

It is an astonishing fact that Page could not write and cable the most important details, for he was afraid that they would promptly be given to the reporters.
* * * * * "I shall not send another confidential message to the State Department," Page wrote to Colonel House, September 15, 1914; "it's too dangerous.
Time and time again now the Department has leaked.

Last week, I sent a dispatch and I said in the body of it, '_this is confidential and under no condition to be given out or made public, but to be regarded as inviolably secret_.' The very next morning it was telegraphed from Washington to the London newspapers.