The british government soon introduced the War Press Bureau (WPOB) in August 1914. This was used to maintain the moral of the british people by censoring and “editing” the british army reports befor giving them to the press. a War Propaganda Bureau (WPB) was also set up in 1914 to help with this proces.
The 250,00 man that comprised the B.E.F had nearly all became wiped out by the german advance. Lord Kitchener (war minister) itroduced a recruting campain on august the 7th 1914. The WPB backed this by launching a poster campain (see right) and gloryfing the situation by publishing pro-war poems articles in the news papers. This was a sucesful campain and by 1916 over 3m men had volenteredto join the army. As a backlash of this the No-Conscription Fellowship (NCF) were formed. This consisted of about 300,000 men who belived that they did not have to kill there fellow man. They were refered to as conciances objectors.
in febury 1916 conscription was introduced becauses the numbers of men were drying up. conscription kept up the suply of “childless widowers or single men between 18-41” to the western front. Many of the conseance objectors joined the non-battle corps (ambulance service, madics etc) however thoses who refused to be involved at all were imprisoned and punished (70 died in prison).
Due to the need of young officers on the western fron many of the older retired officers were brought back into service to help train up all the new recruits. This ment that the troops could be trained just as quickly without reducing the numbers of officers on the western front.
With the shortage of workers in britain due to the war many women began to fill in the vacant jobs. One such groop was known as the Womans Land Army (WLA), this was based mainly aroung farms. By 1917 there were 260,000 women working on the farms. They did very weel at cultivating the land and by 1918 they had incressed the production of Wheat by 54%, Barly by 17%, Oats by 38% and Potatoes by 68% compared with the producton of 1916. Women also filled a vital role in the production of munitions needed for the front line.
Women didn’t only fill in agriculture and industry, they were needd to keep order throughout britain. Margerat
