'The Scrap of Paper'

This poster was published by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC) in December 1914. Surprisingly few recruiting posters sought to justify the war, but those that did tended to focus on examples of 'Prussian aggression' and duplicity, especially the invasion of 'defenceless' Belgium. The neutrality of the latter had been theoretically guaranteed by the 1839 Treaty of London, signed by the German, French, British and Russian governments (among others). The treaty, contemptuously referred to as 'a scrap of paper' by the Kaiser's Chancellor, was effectively torn up following the invasion on 2 August 1914, which led in turn to Britain's entry into the war.

This perceived act of treachery on Germany's part was widely used in Allied propaganda, even though the treaty had been signed 75 years earlier and bore little relevance to the politics of 1914. This poster was extensively distributed throughout Britain and overseas. The PRC also produced a Welsh version of the design.