Propaganda, Recruitment and Resistance Essay

When warfare broke out, the British ground forces was professional besides sm any. The governwork forcet frighteningly needed a big money to a greater extent troops, and they turned their heads straight to recruit human beingspowert. Britain was rattling opposite to its every(prenominal)ies in recruit manpowert they started the war recruiting volunteers. The Govern workforcet believed that as tradition, they should non force any(prenominal) custody 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 abounding soldiers to volunteer.The Govern workforcet put on that many soldiers would come forward as patriots and out of honour, for generations handss predecessors had fought in obliging war, master key Kitchener and the PM Asquith supposed custody had to find the loyalty. Those who indispensabilityed to join the army, joined out of excitement, the thrill of kill ing, and a run out from normal life. They thought that the war was tone ending to be a short, wanton war which they would non 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 lead 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 staminate citizens were genuinely persuaded by the propaganda and believed what it told them. The organisation realize that all men who volunteered were going to train harder, and in the long term where going to be greatest soldiers, veritable(a) if on that point was a smaller number of them.Women, older men (who had fought in civil wars before them) pressured young men who had non enlisted, boardhal their friends, and relatives were joining. In theatres, actresses interrupted performances to call men up onto the st get on and subscribe to up. Those men who were notic e the play felt embarrassed, also as if everyone was watching them and urging them to sign up. The Government encour get ond this in homes, and although it was an illegitimate bearing of acquire men to join, it was very useful, and many of those who were put under ofttimes(prenominal) pressure, crumbled and enlisted.The figures of inert men in Britain were rising, and the mensuration of jobs for these men was decreasing, as they didnt book the necessary skills to acquire a job that paid wakeless money. rosiness Minister Asquith seized upon this opportunity to give these unemployed a afterlife in the army. The unemployed had to accept the opportunity, as it paid good money, it was an enkindle experience and that they simply they had no where else to go. The men were happy to receive this rise away from their dirty, shabby lifestyle. Asquith, and Kitchener exaggerated this search, and the unemployed believed that this was easy money, and a access to a new life.Men who vo lunteered into the army where grouped in uniformity of what area they came from. Theoretically this was a good idea, but in design demonstrated a fatal blunder. Pals Battalions as these neighbouring units were named, were awfully effective in making apiece soldier feel at home, and able to settle in to army life. At the front though it was a different story, as each Pals Battalion went over the top it was usually on the first off day of a major battle, which resulted in 70% or more of their men killed or seriously wounded. Local areas in England wit a small cosmos lost many of its younger men in a short space of time.The rest of the male population who did not volunteer chose not to for various formers. nigh(prenominal) men trenchant not to enlist on occupational grounds. Men who worked in rattling industries such as mining felt it was there duty to baulk home and continue their inborn job. However, this was not the and reason on work-related grounds that people did not volunteer. Some men did not want to fight because they had a healthy paid job and good life story prospects, whilst others left the rest of the population to volunteer because they thought that the war would not last long. They assumed that if they joined the army they would die, they were scared of dying and losing everything that they had worked for.This veneration of dying was made a great deal worse when rumours of the conditions on the front line filtered through to the customary. They were told of the huge numbers of deaths and casualties that the British were taking. some other chose not to volunteer on the moral or religious grounds. The Quakers did not volunteer because they did not believe the war was the answer. Many other men refused to play God, ad take away another mans life. Some men refused to volunteer because they had people at home depending on them, and they were the main bread take onner of the family, for example children and wives or elderly relatives.T he Government thought that the war would be over by Christmas, and this small army would do fine, because the Navy would be the major battle point in the war, where the ships would create blockages, and starve them to surrender. selective service being introduced from 1914 would postulate caused pandemonium in Britain, for the fact that the public would have realised that this war was going to be a long and pull out war. Asquith did not want to cause any panic, and wanted to invest out business as usual, one of his ideas to keep Britain an active and calm country to live in in time, although the war was only overseas, but as many exports and imports happened overseas, and where transported into foreign countries, business as usual could not happen.Also the regime didnt introduce haughty legions service because they trusted the public to volunteer, as it was a change, it was supposedly exciting, and the thought of becoming a hero was a break to be loved by your friends, but most importantly, the whole country. Lord Kitchener and Asquith were spot on by the end of August in 1914 300,000 more soldiers had enlisted. In September of 1914, 462,901 out of 600,000 volunteers stepped up to support the war efforts. The aim for the end of December was an army of 4 million (which even for the supreme British, I believe was a long shot).Conscription would have faced a battering by civil rights activists if introduced in 1914, as conscription was anti-liberal, and a breach of civil rights and individual freedom. In hindsight, with all the protesters, volunteering was an easier way of recruiting without hassle. Another aggravation of conscription was the cost of it. It was considered that conscription would be a waste of needed money and resources.All of the eligible men must be registered in a system, not all men would turn up to register, resulting in wasted time, which could be used to give away posters to round up troops for volunteering.However by 1915 not adequacy soldiers were being recruited, and drastic measures hadto be taken to gather enough soldiers to get by with the large German army. In 1916 there was a change in Government. Lloyd George became the new Prime Minister, he was determined to win this war, and his practical foreland led to the introduction of conscription.The Government primarily thought that they would recruit enough soldiers without moving to conscription, but they were very wrong. The German land forces were huge, and the previous Prime Minister (Asquith) believed this war would be won by Britains nautical supremacy. Again, they were wrong, the trenches was where the major fighting was taking place, thousands of deaths happened each day at the front. As the war dragged on and on, fewer and fewer amounts of men were enlisting to fight, this was primarily due(p) to leaks from the front of the ugly conditions, and high amount of deaths were published by the media.As the numbers of deaths on the front grew, t he Government started to ban the lists of deaths. This was due to over the top tactics as men were old to offer in lines, shooting to gain breach the trenches of the Germans. As the deaths increase men became more wary of what was really happening in the war, and some men began to see through the lies of propaganda. plainly deaths were not the only reason why men werent signing up the wages at home were increasing while unemployment was decreasing, resulting in men taking the aspect of staying at home rather than fighting for the army, which at that time had very low pay. The army was made up of lots of previously unemployed men, but as many of those had already enlisted, there was a dearth of men that wanted to sign up.As volunteers piled through in the other(a) months of the war, the Government believed the army was going to have enough men to win this war, on foot and on sea. But as the number of volunteers each month declined, women of husbands who had volunteered, and the familiar public (except most younger men) began to complain that it was unfair that some men had volunteered and others had not. There had to be a fairer system, those who had not volunteered were getting away lightly. The only way to improve this system was to introduce conscription.not only were there thousands of deaths occurring on the front every day, but men did not receive the right, or enough ammunition to compete with the invariable bombardment of shells, and the onslaught of machine gun bullets ripping through the British defence, it s men. This was called the Shell Scandal. The reason for the shortage of ammunition was due to the amount of workers that had joined up to the army from indispensable war industries. Factories that made shells, bullets, and armour where literally deserted. The pay was substantially higher in the army, it was an exciting prospect and a change for the men that work the same shift, producing the same goods all day.The press began campaigning to introduce conscription, because they knew the real deaths that were taking place at the front, given(p) that the government banned them from publishing the amount of deceased.Bearing in mind that the newspapers had a major influence over the public and then, (and still do now) it started to persuade (using propaganda) the public that conscription was acceptable, and the right way forward. The general public began to succumb to the idea, and by the end of the campaigning the national utility league (NSL) demanded the change from the new government. Lloyd George, as a practical man realised that this was the only way to win the war.Conscription commenced in January 1916, but a long time before that there was talk on how the government would assemble all of the eligible men for active military service, and the restrictions they would put on those that could be exempt from military service.They started the process by creating a National Register, which self-possessed together ev ery citizens details from the age of 15 to 65 e.g. name, age, marital status, occupation and skills.All of the data was collected together. It allowed the government to calculate how many men were of military age, and those who would be in the future, but also those who were in reserved occupations, which means those jobs that are essential to the war effort e.g. industry and agriculture.The National register not only provided the government with information, but also opened the door for new ideas. unmatchable of these ideas was the Derby Recruiting Scheme. It was named after Lord Derby the Director of Recruiting, as he was the one who manipulated the information from the National Register to his advantage.He asked all British men aged among 18 and 41 if they would be disposed to serve in the army. Although you may have thought like the propaganda posters, the personal, facade approach would have worked, it didnt. The results were disappointing. Firstly, those who were not in re served occupation did not like the idea of fighting in the war, those would did want to fight were summoned with twain weeks notice and secondly, a plus can be drawn from this, this was the first time an actual system had been put in place for conscription, so things could only get better.After the poor response from all those who were not exempt from the war, there was only one way to get men to fight, that was to force them.Four months after The Derby Recruiting scheme the conscription came in form of the Military dish out Act, which required all unmarried men, and widowers without children or dependents e.g. sick mother, between the age of 18 and 41 to join the army. undivided men in reserved occupations were exempt from duty, as well as those who were breadwinners or sole supporters in their household, those who had medical disabilities and finally conscientious objectors. But as the National Register was unreliable, needed soldiers were not raced.The change from essence vol unteering to conscription happened in a short space of time, only four-spot months. Compulsion did not just stop at exempting men, it became universal, on whitethorn 3rd 1916 all men despite any circumstances between 18 and 41 were forced into battle. Universal Conscription was now introduced and there was no going back.As soldiers died and needed soldiers were untraceable due to poor organisation, the government looked overseas to all British born people, and for Allied citizens keep over here to fight for their natural country. This was another Military Service Act to boost friendship with their Allies. It gave each side more men to fight but mustnt have gone down well with those who tried to flee the country.In two years the British public had gone from hating the idea of conscription to deeming it as acceptable. The newspapers had practically to do with bringing the country round to believing the Government, but the Government wanted everyone involved.In November 1917, the Mi nistry of National Service was formed the power given to them was unbelievable. They could cancel all exemptions on occupational grounds almost play God with peoples lives, as they well knew that 70% of these men would die or become seriously injured, before the war had ended.The government began to keep on rising the age limits, and the limits on who should fight, they were becoming desperate the age limit was raised to 50, and if deaths were on high occurrence then it would be a staggering 56Even Ireland was made to patronage 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 decelerate 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 hadnt 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.