Neutrality

Abstract

At the outbreak of the war the British Foreign Office paid scant attention to the United States or its President. As many, if not all members believed that the war would be short and culminate in a negotiated peace, the United States and its President were irrelevant. Sir Edward Grey might have surrendered to the notion that the western hemisphere was an ‘American’ hemisphere after the United States made short work of the Spanish in their 116-day war in 1898, but that did not mean that the new power had a role in European affairs. The policy of neutrality adopted by Wilson came as no surprise. However, during these early months of the war the two aspects of his policy that the diplomatists had seen during the pre-war period re-emerged. The Foreign Office received a reminder of the pressures on Wilson quite early in the conflict. In September, Colville Barclay reported that

The President today issued a powerful appeal to his fellow countrymen, urging them to remain calm, and to refrain from speech and action which might create bitterness, or embroil the country.