"Bryce came to see me in a state of great depression," wrote Page.

"He has sent Mr.Wilson a personal letter on this matter." Northcliffe commanded his newspapers, the _Times_ and the _Daily Mail_, to discuss the note in a judicial spirit, but he himself told Mr.Page that "everybody is as angry as hell." When someone attempted to discuss the Wilson note with Mr.Asquith, he brushed the subject away with a despairing gesture.
"Don't talk to me about it," he said.

"It is most disheartening." But the one man in England who was perhaps the most affected was King George.

A man who had attended luncheon at Buckingham Palace on December 21st gave Page a description of the royal distress.

The King, expressing his surprise and dismay that Mr.Wilson should think that Englishmen were fighting for the same things in this war as the Germans, broke down.
The world only now understands the dreadful prospect which was opening before Europe at the moment when this Presidential note added a new cause for general despondency.