In spite of any hesitancy I might formerly have felt at such a course, I decided to make a confession. Von Papen’s betrayal of me—for that he had intentionally betrayed me, I was, and am, convinced—was too wanton to arouse in me any feeling except a desire for my freedom, which for fifteen months I had been robbed of, merely through the silence which my own sense of honor imposed upon me. But I must be careful. I had no desire to injure anyone whom von Papen had not implicated. And I did not wish to betray any secret which I could safely withhold. I speculated upon what other documents von Papen might have carried. So far as I knew the only one involving me was the check; but of that I could not be sure, nor did it seem likely. It was more probable that there were other papers which would be used to test the sincerity of my story. My aim was to tell only such things as were already known, or were quite harmless. But how to do that? I needed some inkling as to what I might tell and on what I must be silent. That knowledge was difficult to obtain, but I finally secured it through a rather adroit questioning of one of the men who interrogated me at the time. He had shown me much courtesy and no little sympathy; and after some pains I managed to worm out of him a very indefinite but useful idea of what matters the von Papen documents covered. What I learned was sufficient to enable me to exclude from my story any facts implicating men who might be harmed by my disclosures. I told of the Welland Canal plot so far as my part in it was concerned, and I told of von Papen’s share in that and other activities. And I took care to incorporate in my confession the promise of immunity that had been made me tentatively. “I have made these statements,” I wrote, “on the distinct understanding that the statements I have made, or should make in the future, will not be used against me; that I am not to be prosecuted for participation in any enterprise directed against the United Kingdom or her Allies I engaged in at the direction of Captain von Papen or other representatives of the German Government; and that the promise made to me by Capt. William Hall, Chief of the Intelligence Department of the Admiralty, in the presence of Mr. Basil Thompson, former Governor of Tonga, and Assistant Commissioner of Police, and in the presence of Superintendent Quinn, political branch of Scotland Yard, that I am not to be extradited or sent to any country where I am liable to punishment for political offences, is made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government.”