Walter Hines Page to Woodrow Wilson

Admiral Hall, chief Intelligence Officer of the Admiralty, is the man who gave us the Zimmermann telegram about Mexico, and the telegrams, publishd today, about Sweden's transmitting official German documents and about the German insult to the Argentine Government. It is he who has served us 1,000 good turns ever since the war began. Mr. Bell, of my staff, who has daily dealings with him, keeps this channel of information open most admirably.

Admiral Hall's service is so helpful that it has occurred to me that possibly you may think it worthy of some special mark of appreciation. We have no Orders or Decorations to bestow thank Heaven; and you cd not, in good etiquette, write to the subject of another Government. But if you wd send me a message of appreciation that I might give to him, you wd please one of the best and ablest servants that any Government has and a man who is as ardently American as any foreigner can be. Bell, too, deserves much credit for the way in which he handles all this delicate business.