TheCodeBreakers
any charge of using the document improperly and would attract more
attention than issuing it openly." Accordingly, at 6 p.m. the next day, E.
M. Hood of the Associated Press was called to Lansing's home, given the
message and some background details, and pledged to secrecy on the
greatest scoop of the war.
The story broke in eight-column streamers in the morning papers of
March 1. "Profound sensation," Lansing noted. The nation gasped. In
Congress, the House orated patriotically and passed by 403 to 13 a bill to
arm merchant ships. But the Senate, more deliberate, wondered whether
the whole thing was not just a crude Allied plot. This reaction had been
foreseen. Lansing had asked Page to "Please endeavor to obtain copy of
German code from Mr. Balfour," but the British had told him that the
code was "never used straight, but with a great number of variations
which are known to only one or two experts here. They can not be spared
to go to America
annaabi.ee 
