y own study of the situation
and of certain proposals which, I think, if they commend themselves
to you, will go far to remove this dangerous tension. I hope to go
over them with you at your convenience.

Yours faithfully,

WALTER H. PAGE.

The situation was alarming for more reasons than the determination of
Germany to force the peace issue. The State Department was especially
irritated at this time over the blockade. Among the "trade advisers"
there was a conviction, which all Page's explanations had not destroyed,
that Great Britain was using the blockade as a means of destroying
American commerce and securing America's customers for herself. Great
Britain's regulations on the blacklist and "bunker coal" had intensified
this feeling. In both these latter questions Page regarded the British
actions as tactless and unjust; he had had many sharp discussions at the
Foreign Office concerning them, but had not made much headway in his
efforts to obtain their abandonment. The purpose of the "blacklist" was
to strike at neutral firms with German affiliations which were trading
with Germany. The Trading with the Enemy Act provided that such firms
could not trade with Great Britain; that British vessels must refuse to
accept their cargoes, and that any neutral ship which accepted such
cargoes would be denied bunker coal at British ports. Under this law the
Ministry of Blockade issued a "blacklist" of more than 1,000 proscribed
exporting houses in the United States. So great was the indignation
against this boycott in the United States that Congress, in early
September, had passed a retaliatory act; this gave the President the
authority at any time to place an embargo upon the exports to the United
States of countries which discriminated against American firms and also
to deny clearance to ships which refused to accept American cargoes. The
two countries indeed seemed to be hastening toward a crisis.

Page's urgent letter to Mr. Wilson brought a telegram from Mr. Tumulty
inviting the Ambassador to spend the next evening and night with the
President at Shadow Lawn, the seaside house on the New Jersey coast in
which Mr. Wilson was spending the summer. Mr. Wilson received his old
friend with great courtesy and listened quietly and with apparent
interest to all that he had to say. The written statement to which Page
refers in his letter told the story of Anglo-American relations from the
time of the Pan