The Organisation of Official British Propaganda, 1914–16

Abstract

The precise origins of the British government’s involvement in war propaganda remain clouded in uncertainty. Few records survive which throw light upon seemingly mysterious beginnings of the various organisations that sprang into being following the outbreak of the First World War. If there was any pre-war planning for such work — as is often suspected — evidence of it does not appear to exist. As a result, the picture which emerges is one of rapid improvisation, confused responsibility and empirical development. British officials unfamiliar with the management of public opinion suddenly found themselves involved in work for which they had little enthusiasm and still less experience. Before 1914, the prevailing official attitude had favoured secrecy rather than publicity. Despite the efforts of several politicians to cultivate opinion through the medium of the press, the type of atmosphere in which ideas might flourish of manipulating popular opinion on a large scale, especially in foreign countries, did not exist in nineteenth-century Britain. Indeed, even on the outbreak of the First World War, the government displayed little concern for explaining the causes or justifying British involvement to the general public at home, other than the preparation of a bluebook on the subject.