My Christmas reading has been Secrets of Crewe House (1920) by Sir Campbell Stuart – an intriguing account of the British propaganda offensive against enemy countries. A story that particularly struck me was this:

When the work was started by the miltary authorities the leaflets were dropped by aeroplanes. This method had the widest limits, and, at the same time, was the best means of carrying a large bulk and distributing with accuracy. Perturbed by the success attained, the Germans threatened to inflict severe penalties upon airmen captured when performing such duties, and, on capturing two British airmen, followed their threats by action.

In other words, an airman could be shot for dropping leaflets, though one who dropped bombs would be treated honourably as a prisoner of war. Stuart continues indignantly:

Instead of instituting immediate reprisals, the British authorities tamely submitted and gave instructions for the discontinuance of the use of aeroplanes for the purpose.

After that, leaflets were carried over by balloons, with a clever mechanism of slow-burning fuses that allowed batches of leaflets to be dropped at regular intervals as the balloon sailed over enemy territory.

The discontinuance of manned leaflet-dropping presumably shows a concern for the welfare of the airmen, but maybe also suggests that early in the war some of the British felt a moral unease about this kind of propaganda warfare, designed essentially to turn soldiers and citizens against their government.

Stuart, on the other hand, was writing after the war, and as a veteran of Northcliffe’s organisation at Crewe House. To him, such qualms would have appeared absurd – hence his criticism of the “tameness” of the British authorities. A small marker of how attitudes changed over the course of the War.