WW1 - How successful was propeganda in the encouraging enlistment and ensuring public sport?

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Edward Phillips

17 May 2003

HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS PROPAGANDA IN ENCOURAGING ENLISTMENT AND ENSURING PUBLIC SUPPORT?

‘Propaganda’ is one-sided communication designed to influence people’s thinking and actions.  It is the word used to describe the ways in which the government  tries to persuade people to follow their cause and win people’s acceptance of their views, by emphasising only the good points of the government and the bad points of the opposition.  It comes from the Latin name of a group of Roman Catholic cardinals, the ‘Congregatio de Propaganda Fide’ (Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith).  Pope Gregory XV established the committee, which was called ‘propaganda’ for short, in 1622 to supervise missionaries, and gradually the word came to mean any effort to spread a belief.

When World War I broke out in August 1914, Lord Horatio Kitchener, who had been a famous British soldier, became a member of the government and was promoted to field marshal.   He then became the War Minister.  David Lloyd George was in charge of setting up a War Propaganda Bureau, the WPB, partly in order to persuade men to join the forces, but propaganda could be used for a number of purposes:-

  • To keep up morale at the Home Front and encourage people to give their time and money to the war effort
  • To portray the enemy as an evil that needs to be fought
  • To recruit more soldiers
  • To stop information from being published which might help the enemy
  • To psychologically dishearten the enemy troops
  • To give civilians a government-approved version of the war

The whole country needed to be convinced that the decision to enter the War was right, and the government needed as much support as possible.  Although a lot of people thought that the war would not last long, Lord Kitchener, now the War Minister was convinced that it would be a long struggle and he began a huge programme to enlist and train volunteers for the army.  He called for 100,000 volunteers and within four weeks, over half a million men had joined up to form ‘Kitchener’s New Army’.  Probably the most famous poster of the time is this picture of Lord Kitchener pointing his finger, with the words ‘BRITONS, JOIN YOUR COUNTRY’S ARMY!’

Join now!

Posters were used to encourage people to join the army, and they also encouraged patriotism.  Most of the volunteers who joined as junior officers came from the public schools and universities.  A lot of them had been in the cadet corps at school, but a lot of them volunteered because they were unemployed.  The army gave them a paid job at last and they probably would not need much persuading to join up.  The men and boys who joined up did so ‘in a spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice’.  The First Hundred Thousand were ...

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