Propaganda Used by England and

Propaganda Used by England and Triple Entente When the United Kingdom entered the Great War in august 1914, the British government had to organize rapidly toward building a war propaganda machine to act toward two main ends: the recruiting for the army and the encouraging of the population to support the war effort.

The British army did not have a compulsory service until 1914 and although it was made of highly trained professionals, it needed a far more advanced recruitment plan in order to be able to sustain a war that rapidly spread at a world wide scale. The British chancellor David Lloyd George appointed Charles Masterman as the head of the British War Propaganda Bureau (WPB).

The British War Propaganda worked on three front lines: propaganda meant to bolster the spirit of the population at home, propaganda that was aimed at counterattacking the German propaganda machine and finally, the propaganda that aimed at motivating the U.S. To enter the war. The fact that beside being a prominent politician, Charles Masterman was also a well-known and acclaimed writer was not an accident. The propaganda apparatus will be based on two essentially supporting pillars: the creativity of the artists and the publishing institutions.

After having held two conferences with representatives of the literary world and those of the publishing houses and the mass media, Masterman established the quarters of the WPB at wellington House, a block of flats in Buckingham Gate (Sanders 1975, 119). David George Lloyd was one of the best orators of his time and after Great Britain had entered the war, his speeches were directed to gather the support of the population for the immense efforts their country needed to sustain.

Lloyd's first public speech as a high representative of the British government was aimed at explaining the reasons for defending Belgium against the German invaders British people had to understand and, more importantly support with their own efforts.

What could appeal best to the British people than putting their honor and thus that of their country at stake? Lloyd masterful art of using the most important feature of the national character of his fellow countrymen was striking where it hurt most: national pride and personal value: "Why is our honour as a country involved in this war? Because in the first place, we are bound in an honourable obligation to defend the independence, the liberty, the integrity of a small neighbor that has lived peaceably, but she could not have compelled us because she was weak" (Lloyd, cited by Heyman 1997, 176).

Two of the best ways to get the British public's attention were used in the introduction of Lloyd's first public speech meant to mobilize the masses to join the war effort with every resource they had in order to help the balance towards the victory of the Entente. The British people were very sensitive when it came to concepts such as: "honor" and, another intelligent strike: the cheering of the weakest party.

The psychology that worked in the sport fields when the public would cheer for the weakest player if it was obvious that the party was outweighed by the opponent was also working on the minds of commoners. They were asked to agree with sending their family members to the front lines in order to defend a small country that had been invaded by the much more powerful and larger neighbor, Germany.

The third key element in Lloyd's speech closely followed the two above mentioned: the contrast between the brutality of barbarism and the nobility and sense of fairness of those who considered themselves civilized. Further, Lloyd comes up with a short introduction of how the Germans acted when they wrongfully invaded Belgium. In the name of fairness, he is not attempting to attack the Germans as a nation, but their leader, the representative of pure evil: the Kaiser.

This would serve two purposes: the first would be to persuade the British people of their legitimacy in supporting their government in all its efforts to defeat the Germans as soon as possible and restore order and fairness in the world and second, to send a message abroad, on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Americans were considering if they were to join the war on the side of the Entente and they had to be motivated by such powerful symbols as that of the Keiser presented by the chancellor. Lloyd's speech can be used in any textbook today as an example of how well the masses can be manipulated by someone who is able to use the psychological and social information about a nation's features at hand.

He is showing generosity in his assessment of the national character of the German nation, but the next paragraph is a well directed attack at the hegemonic aspirations Germany manifested during the last decades. He does not forget to mention one of the most important goals of the German propaganda aimed at its own population for the motivation of the German leadership's willingness to conquer the world: the German superiority in race: "Treaties? They tangled the feet of Germany in her advance. Cut them with the sword.

Little nations? They hinder the advance of Germany. Trample them in the mire under the German heel. The Russian Slav? He challenged the supremacy of Germany and Europe. Hurl your legions at him and massacre him. Britain? She is a constant menace to the predominancy of Germany in the world. Wrest the trident out of her hands. Ah! more than that. The new philosophy of Germany is to destroy Christianity"(Lloyd, cited by Heyman 1997, 176). The British and the Triple Entente were at the dawn of the propaganda era.

The First World War produced the mass manipulation techniques, instruments and theories that were applied as they appeared and tested almost instantly. By the end of the Great War, there were already well established institution that were functioning on their own, more or less under the supervision and approval of the government. The materials with propagandistic messages were diverse and could be found practically under any form the written, the spoken word and the art of image could take: leaflets, pamphlets, speeches, newspaper and magazine articles, posters etc.

The posters were propagating mobilizing slogans like: "How the Hun Hates," http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/images/pp_uk_01.jpg The Hun and the Home" http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/images/pp_uk_03.jpg Red Cross or Iron Cross" http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/images/pp_uk_04.jpg Men of Britain! Will You Stand This?" http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/images/pp_uk_39.jpg The first poster presents some civilians who are followed by guards dressed like the marines, with bayonets in their hands, walking through a crowed that laughs at the civilians who appear to have half of their beards and heads shaved off.

The text below the picture explains its meaning: "The Huns captured some of our fishermen in the North Sea and took them to Sennelager. They charged them without a shred of evidence with being "mine layers." They ordered them to be punished without a trial. That punishment consisted in shaving all the hair off one side of the head and face. The Huns then marched their victims through the streets and exposed them to the Jeers of the German populace.

British Sailors!Look!Read!andRemember!" (www.firstworldwar.com).Readingthis message it becomes clear that the campaign against the Germans was going beyond what Lloyd said in his first discourse to the public since the beginning of the war. The poster is depicting civilians who are punished without a trial and exposed to the mockery of the German population.

The loss of dignity and the public shame are two elements that are obviously destined to turn not only the British soldiers, but also the entire British population against those who were supposed to have broken the war laws and had gone at taking civilians prisoners. It is not hard to image the indignation the British public must have felt when reading this poster. The second poster is entitled "The Hun and the Home" and it presents two parallel images: England and Belgium.

England is represented by a peaceful image of a village and below this picture, it reads: "OUR Homes are secure. OUR Mothers and Wives safe. OUR Children still play and fear no harm" (www.firstworldwar.com).Belgiumis represented by ruins and two people who are wondering through what appears to have been once an idyllic and peaceful place. The text below this image reads: "THEIR Homes are destroyed. THEIR Women are murdered and worse. THEIR Children are dead or slaves" (idem).

And the last message of the whole poster is: "Back up the men who have saved you!" (idem). The idea does not need to be explained here. The incentive for those who are at home and could be crying after their family members fighting in the tranches and the front lines is the image of a possible future without the safety and peace from home. The peace at home is conditioned by the peace in the neighboring countries and the British public receives this message by means of comparison.

Another powerful image is created by the artists of the British propaganda who drew a nurse in the battlefield, who is spilling water on the ground rather than helping a thirsty wounded British soldier, under the satisfied looks of two German officers. Not only the German men were presented as barbarians, beasts who stopped at nothing in the countries they invaded, but also German women are described are being merciless and prone to laugh at the helpless and powerless wounded instead of helping him.

The text reads: Wounded and a prisoner, our soldier cries for water. The German "sister" pours it on 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" (www.firstworldwar.com) Thisis another analogy between opposite features of the two enemy nations and their character.

British civilians at home must have been impressed by such display of inhumane behavior in a woman who swore to take care of the wounded and should have answered the cry of an invalid the only way the Red Cross members are supposed to: with compassion. The last of the above series of posters presents a little girl holding her doll, coming out of the destroyed wall of her house. Below this image it reads: "78 Women and Children were killed and 228 Women and Children were wounded by the German Raiders.

Enlist Now" (www.firstworldwar.com).Thisis another easy to translate message that does not need to be explained in depth. Men got the idea that in order for their wives, mothers and children to be spared the fate of those who were killed by the German Raids, they had to act immediately and join the army ranks in order to defeat the Germans and put a stop to war atrocities.

All these posters are presenting the Germans as the complete image of evil, the representation of everything the British nation ever resented: lack of respect toward their prisoners, disregard of the war conventions from Geneva, killing and mutilating of civilian, children and women. The only correct answer to all these propagandistic presentations of the Germans was to join the British army against this common enemy who would stop at nothing on his way to conquer the world and spread the evil everywhere.

Between 1914 and 1916, there were several organizations that dealt with propaganda (domestic or destined for abroad). By 1916 these organizations have been regrouped and united under the same leadership. They were all subjected to the control of the Foreign Office. However, this reorganization was not satisfactory for some of the former activists in the various propagandistic fields.

Robert Donald's report on the situation of the new organization showed what he considered some of the flaws in the system and their causes: "The condition into which publicity and propaganda work has drifted at the present time is due to the casual way in which it originatedand the promiscuous way it has expanded" (Donald, cited by Sanders 1975, 123). Following the issue of the Donald report, the government decided it was imperative to establish a new and Department of State only for the purpose of propaganda.

The head of this department was named John Buchan who was appointed as head of the department in February 1917 (Sanders, 1975). The propaganda against the Germans was conducted at the time by a special service of the War Department (Lumley 1933, 223). As detailed above, the process of developing a propaganda on all fronts became more and more developed and evolved into a fully grown institution by 1917 in Great Britain.

but, the first two years of the war when the propagandistic means and system were just beginning to evolve, were essential for the population persuasion part to approve of and become involved in the war effort. One of the most efficient means to attain this goal was to get the people convinced that the source of evil was coming from the Germans who were fighting on the negative side of the history.

The Germans had to be depicted as the pure evil, while the British, the French and the Russians were the answer to world salvation. One of the first reports destined to present the British people and the world at large with an image of the war atrocities German soldiers committed in Belgium belongs to a well-known and respected representative of the British government, former ambassador to Washington. His report appeared was published in the English press and in various other languages, in foreign countries.

The committee that investigated the acts against the Belgian civilians committed under the German occupation was relaying for its report on one hand the depositions of those survivors from the Belgian civilian part, de depositions of British and Belgian soldiers and, on the other on the diaries left behind or found at the German soldiers taken prisoners (Wilson 1979, 372).

The text of the report, published in more than ten languages, was accompanied by more or less explicit drawings that increased the impact of the message on those who were confronted with those acts of.