Propaganda, Recruitment and Resistance During World War I

Propaganda, Recruitment and Resistance During World War I

When war broke out, the British army was professional but small. The

government desperately needed a lot more troops, and they turned their

heads straight to recruitment. Britain was very different to its

allies in recruitment; they started the war recruiting volunteers. The

Government believed that as tradition, they should not force any men

into conflict; they had never done, and believed they never would.

Volunteering was a British thing to do; using posters, and leaflets,

they thought would get enough soldiers to volunteer.

The Government assumed that many soldiers would come forward as

patriots and out of honour, for generations men’s predecessors had

fought in civil war, Lord Kitchener and the PM Asquith supposed men

had to maintain the loyalty. Those who wanted to join the army, joined

out of excitement, the thrill of killing, and a break from normal

life. They thought that the war was going to be a short, easy war

which they would not be a major part of, as they had been reassured

that the Naval power would wipe out supplies of food, and arms. These

troops would have been highly motivated and ready for whatever was to

come at them (or so they thought).

Propaganda was a factor in men volunteering; a number of the male

citizens were genuinely persuaded by the propaganda and believed what

it told them. The Government realised that all men who volunteered

were going to train harder, and in the long term where going to be

superior soldiers, even if there was a smaller number of them.

Women, older men (who had fought in civil wars before them) pressured

young men...

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staggering 56!

Even Ireland was made to abide by the same rules of compulsion that

was already in place in England. The British Army wanted to out number

the Germans, but in the end they had a lot of soldiers at the front

unwilling to fight, even those who had volunteered were becoming

reluctant to fight.

By the end of the war the British realised that they no longer needed

so many men, as they were slowing crushing Germany, and the Minimum

age of exemption was 23. Men under that age were considered too weak.

Slowly but surely the Government extended the restrictions on

compulsion. If there hadn’t been a change in government then I believe

compulsion would have been introduced at a much later stage, because

Asquith was against the idea of forcing men to fight; it was a breach

of civil rights.