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Was the First World War a ‘Total war’ for Britain?
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People were prepared to limit their freedom of speech they were entitled to. At this time newspapers and periodicals were a major source of information about the war effort. A periodical like ‘The Illustrated London News’ carried stories and particularly photographs from the front line. To keep spirits high at home, paper editors sometimes withheld information that might lower the moral of the country. On August 15 a correspondent for ‘The Times’ newspaper watched British troops who had just crossed to France, marching to their camps above Boulogne reports “Watch them as they pass, every man in the prime of life, not a youth or stripling among them. Their shirts are open at the front, and as they shout you can see the working of the muscles of their throats, their wide-open mouths and rows of dazzling teeth. Every movement spells fitness for the field, for long marches by day and longer nights in the trenches.”
He continued “I can see them again, with their brown, jolly faces, full of laughter, and hear them still shouting and singing, ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary, it’s a long way to go,’ while the officers, with the quiet, confident smiles ride between, raising hands in salute to their French comrades in arms on the pavements.”
Donald Hankey fought on the Somme, he was the brother of the British Cabinet Secretary, and he sent an account of what he had seen to the editor of the Spectator magazine, for which he had written a number of articles while in France. The editor, however, in what he regarded as the interest of patriotism, refused to publish it. Hankey wrote, “Here we are where we started. Day and night we have done nothing but bring in the wounded and the dead. When one sees the dead, their limbs crushed and mangled, one can only have revulsion for war. It was easy to talk of glory and heroism when one sees the dead, their limbs crushed and mutilated and tortured dead, one can only feel the horror and wickedness of war. Indeed it is an evil harvest, sown of pride and arrogance and lust of power.”
I felt these articles were very strong in showing that there were many other ways in which people were helping out in the war effort. The editor went against his obligation to give the truth to keep the moral of the country flying high.
The First World War was very expensive for Britain, our debts were huge and this was not helped by the fact we had to write off 757 million pounds of debts owed to us by the [next page]