Pretending all this time that you were neutral! That isn't necessary any longer." "You are right!" the Ambassador answered as he walked on with a laugh and a wave of the hand.
A few days after the Washington Declaration, the American Luncheon Club held a feast in honour of the event.

This organization had a membership of representative American business men in London, but its behaviour during the war had not been based upon Mr.Wilson's idea of neutrality.
Indeed its tables had so constantly rung with denunciations of the _Lusitania_ notes that all members of the American Embassy, from Page down, had found it necessary to refrain from attending its proceedings.
When Page arose to address his compatriots on this occasion, therefore, he began with the significant words, "I am glad to be back with you again," and the mingled laughter and cheers with which this remark was received indicated that his hearers had caught the point.
The change took place not only in Page, but in London and the whole of Great Britain.

An England that had been saying harsh things of the United States for nearly two years now suddenly changed its attitude.
Both houses of Parliament held commemorative sessions in honour of America's participation; in the Commons Mr.Lloyd George, Mr.Asquith, and other leaders welcomed their new allies, and in the Upper Chamber Lord Curzon, Lord Bryce, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and others similarly voiced their admiration.

The Stars and Stripes almost instantaneously broke out on private dwellings, shops, hotels, and theatres; street hucksters did a thriving business selling rosettes of the American colours, which even the most stodgy Englishmen did not disdain to wear in their buttonholes; wherever there was a band or an orchestra, the Star Spangled Banner acquired a sudden popularity; and the day even came when the American and the British flags flew side by side over the Houses of Parliament--the first occasion in history that any other than the British standard had received this honour.

The editorial outgivings of the British press on America's entrance form a literature all their own.