Some people did not like this ceremonious style. But after all when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.

Churchill ended his December 8, 1941 letter to the Japanese Ambassador, declaring that a state of war now existed between the United Kingdom and Japan, with the courtly flourish "I have the honour to be, with high consideration, Sir, Your obedient servant".

The Second World War, Volume III: The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 32 (Pearl Harbor).