wounded soldier lies helplessly watching the ground before him, She is laughing and in the background the Kaiser looks on approvingly. This famous poster (see Source B) is ‘one of many pieces of propaganda from the Great War of 1914-18, It contrasts the nobility and vul- nerability of the ‘Brit’ with the cruelty of the Germans, a theme that the British exploited to the full during the war. Indeed, the Great War has been characterised as the war that changed the nature of propaganda as we know it (see Source A), So how did the British government set up its propaganda machine, who was it aimed at and how effective was it? How was the British propaganda machine set up? Initially, icwas the Germans who were ahead in the Prop: race. Prior to the start of war they had prepared leaflets and pamphlets to put forward their case for war and to demoralise enemy troops. ‘As soon as war started, the distribution of German leaflets began and the MP Charles Masterman was asked to devise @ response. In September 1914 Masterman began to assemble a group of writers, to form the ‘War Propaganda Bureau’ (WPB) Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy and H. G. Wells were just some of the famous names gathered together to produce pro- paganda material. This formidable array of talent ‘was used to promote a very particular view of the war (see Source C), which in many ways persists in popular memory to this day. Later their skill was acknowledged, albeit grudgingly, by the American author and social activist Upton Sinclair (see Source D) The WPB had various aims: to promote Britain's cause at home and abroad; to stir up hostility against the enemy; to strengthen ties between the By the end of the war, Britain had developed the classic model on which other governments were sub- sequently to base their own propaganda machinery. M. L. Sanders and P. M. Taylor, British Propaganda during the First World War, 1982. CATE BRETT Allies; to win over neutral countries such as ‘America; and to demoralise the enemy. To achieve these goals Masterman organised the production, translation and distribution of books, pamphlets and speeches by the WPB. It was to produce and ensure the distribution of cartoons, pictures and photographs, films and all kinds of propaganda material. By 1917, 7 million publications were in RED CROSS-*IRON CROSS? WOUNDED ANDA PRISONER OUR SOLDIER CRIES FOR WATER. THE GERMAN SISTER" POURS ITON THE GROUND BEFORE HIS EYES. THERE IS NO WOMAN IN BRITAIN WHO WOULD DO IT. THERE IS NO WOMAN IN BRITAIN WHO WILL FORGET IT.© 1 Why do you think so ‘many famous avihons were willing join the war effort? © 2.Compare the images of the Germans as represented in Sources © ‘and J. What common themes can you spot? The Allies...had no responsibility for starting the war, which was @ product of German militarism cand lust for conquest. The Germans, Huns of ‘ancient memory, left behind them in invaded terri- tories a trail of ruins, blood and terror, murder and. rapine...the plucky British army was filled with loyal and cheerful soldiers enduring their rounds of trench duty without complaint. Quoted in Peter Butenhuis, The Great War of Words: Literature as Propaganda, 1914-1918 and after, 1987. Tam one of the hundred and ten million suckers ‘who swallowed the hook of British official propa- anda, Upton Sinclair, 1927. Quoted in G. Messinger, British Propaganda and the State inthe First World War, 1992. circulation. Later in the war the work of ‘Masterman's department would be incorporated into the Department for Information under the direction of John Buchan, author of thrillers such as The Thirty-nine Steps. The only area that was not within Masterman’s. remit was recruitment, This was the responsibility of the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC), which designed posters and leaflets and organised JOIN YOUR COUNTRY’S ARHY! GOD SAVE THE KING cena by pein of LONDON OPION military patades. In May 1916 the publications department calculated that it had printed 12.5 mil- lion copies of 104 posters. Military bands led pro- cessions, followed by rousing speeches, as medical officers and local magistrates stood by to receive new recruits. The PRC commissioned Alfred Leete’s ‘Kitchener’, one of the most famous pieces of propaganda in twentieth-century history (see Source E). The call to enlist was strengthened by appeals to patriotism, peer pressure, shame and the need to ‘protect our women’ (see Source G). Who was the propaganda aimed at? The widespread anti-German and pro-British feel- ing that swept the country meant that, initially, the propagandists’ attention did not need to be focused at home. Persuading the Americans of their case and demoralising the enemy were far more pressing concerns. Masterman was aware of the importance of support and enlisted the help of the author Sir Gilbert Parker to provide American journalists with information that might help them in writing their articles. Parker put together a mail- ing list of influential Americans and sent informs- tion out to them. By 1917 his list numbered 170,000. He claimed to be wanting to ‘present the bare facts’, although closer examination of his cov- ering letter (see Source F) suggests that bare facts ‘were not the only thing his contact received. Parker's information was presented moderately and subtly, unlike the German propaganda. The German approach seemed to misunderstand the ‘American mind and the need to appeal to senti- ment. There were no stories that would arouse sympathy for women or children, or portrayals of individual British villains and German heroes. One title seemed to sum it up: ‘War or no war, you have to face the facts either now or later.’ It was logical but dull How did the British use ‘atrocity propaganda’? Atrocity propaganda provides some of the most fascinating insights into the use of propaganda in the First World War. This kind of propaganda focuses on some tragedy or act of violence and uses it to foster anger towards the enemy and support for the home side. Tn common with the great majority of Americans, you have, no doubt, made sup your mind as to what ‘country should be held responsible for this tragedy, but these bapers may be found useful for reference, ‘and because they contain the incontrovertible facts, 1 feel that you will probably welcome them in this form. Sir Gilbert Parker in a letter to an American contact, 16 March 1915,The publicity given to the execution of Edith Cavell was @ case in point. Cavell (Source H) was a 50-year-old British nurse working in Belgium in August 1915. SI ly helping Allied ser- caught by the Germans and executed. The ca attracted enormous publicity both in Britain and in USA. The publicity played on the image of the Germans as being brutal and cruel — to execute a woman by firing squad was surely not the iour of a civilised nation! Historians have argued that this case provoked significant sympathy for the Allies and was one of several factors that encouraged the USA to ent of the Allies. A few weeks later, however, ewo German nurses working at a Red Cross hospital in France were caught acting exactly as Nurse Cavell had done. They were executed by the French but the case attracted litle mention in France and England and no mention at all in the USA. Why did the Germans miss the chance to use this incident to their advantage? When asked by an Am nalist based in Berlin, the German information officer did not understand why this was an issue. Although the nurses had acted patriotically, he said, they had known the risks and had paid the price — how could this be an opportunity to score points? This illustrates the weaknesses of the German approach to propaganda in comparison to that of the Allies, who used the Cavell promote their propaganda agenda x the war on the side DSN DUTY LAD SO UCN G ‘A second, more infamous, case was that of the ‘corpse factory’. On 16 April 1917 The Times reported that a LS consul had stated that Germans were ‘distilling glycerine from the bodies of their dead’, In the same issue they quoted Herr Karl Rosner, correspondent for a Berlin newspaper, as ‘admitting this was the case. The following day The Times teported at length from a Belgian paper about a German factory where trainload of corpses were Anather recnulting pester from the First World War. 3 Look carefully at ‘Source G. How isthe ‘poster appealing tothe onlaoker, and why would ts messaze have been powerful? Edith Cavell