Lloyd George, appointed the successful writer and fellow MP, as head of the organization. During the first few months of the war the published pamphlets such as the , which gave credence to the idea that the had systematically tortured Belgian civilians. Other pamphlets published by the WPB that helped with recruitment included To Arms! (), The Barbarism in Berlin (), The New Army () and Liberty, A Statement of the British Case (). The British government also began a successful poster campaign. Artists such as , , and , produced a series of posters urging men to join the Army. This continued into 1915, and almost 2 million men joined as voluntary soldiers.
Also at the start of the war, the German Navy tried to halt the flow of goods into Britain with an unrestricted U-Boat campaign. By the end of 1916, were on average destroying about 300,000 tons of shipping a month. In February 1917, the German Navy sank 230 ships bringing food and other supplies to Britain. The following month a record 507,001 tons of shipping was lost as a result of the U-boat campaign. However, Britain was successful at increasing food production and the wheat harvest of 1917 was the best in our history.
On 8th August 1914, the passed the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) without debate. The legislation gave the government executive powers to suppress published criticism, imprison without trial and to commandeer economic resources for the war effort. During the war, information, which was seen as useful to the enemy, either obtained directly or indirectly was seen as a criminal offence. This included any description of war and any news that was likely to cause any conflict between the public and military authorities. DORA was also used to control civilian behaviour. This including regulating and . In October 1915 the British government announced several measures they believed would reduce alcohol consumption. A “No Treating Order” laid down that people could not buy alcoholic drinks for other people. Public House opening times were also reduced to 12.00 noon to 2.30 pm and 6.30 to 9.30 pm. Before the law was changed, public houses could open from 5 am in the morning to 12.30 pm at night. Also alcohol could not be bought at train stations.
The Ministry of Food did not introduce until January 1918. Sugar was the first to be rationed and this was later followed by butchers' meat. The idea of rationing food was to guarantee supplies, not to reduce consumption. This was successful and official figures show that the intake of calories almost kept up to the pre-war level.
Yet in Britain the Home Front was not completely controlled by the government and not all the women helped in the war effect. This was seen in August 1914; Admiral Charles Fitzgerald founded the Order of the White Feather. With the support of leading writers such as and , the organisation encouraged women to give out white feathers to young men who had not joined the . One young woman remembers her father, Robert Smith, being given a feather on his way home from work: "That night he came home and cried his heart out. My father was no coward, but had been reluctant to leave his family. He was thirty-four and my mother, who had two young children, had been suffering from a serious illness. Soon after this incident my father joined the army." The government became concerned when women began presenting state employees with white feathers. It was suggested to , the Home Secretary, that these women should be arrested for "conduct likely to disrupt the police". McKenna refused but he did arrange for state employees to be issued with badges testifying that they were serving 'King and Country'. This, over-patriotic, created more harm to the government lessening the easy of wining the Home Front. In 1916 the Clyde Workers' Committee journal, The Worker, was prosecuted under the Defence of the Realm Act for an article criticizing the war. and , the editors were both found guilty and sent to prison. Gallacher for six months and Muir for a year. The Clyde Workers' Committee was formed to campaign against the Munitions Act, which forbade engineers from leaving the works where they were employed. On 25th March 1916, the authorities under the Defence of the Realm Act arrested David Kirkwood and other members of the Clyde Workers' Committee Then men were court-martialled and sentenced to be deported from .
These types of anti-war and patriotic groups produced tension and problems for the British government. However this did not stop the British government from wining the Home Front. Yet without a sense of national pride and hope the Home Front would have been a failure. The role of the government was very important in securing victory. The clever political and social developments that the country went through secured a high moral and a sense that every man, woman and child was needed for the war effort.
