Interwar Attitudes to Empire?

Question 1

Explicit government efforts to promote the Empire?

Answer 1

• 1926 Establishment of the Empire Marketing Board which prompted consumption of Empire-produced items through adverts
• Exhibitions staged eg Wembley Exhibition of 1924 (gov contributed half of 2.2m cost) and Glasgow (1938)

Question 2

How popular were these exhibitions

Answer 2

• Wembley: 17m visited in 1924, and 9m visitors in 1925

- Glasgow: 12m visited in 1938

Question 3

Otherways that the empire was promoted?

Answer 3

• BBC established in 1923 was pro-imperial- Xmas broadcasts had various items about Empire
• Empire became focal point in Geog, Hist and Lit (eg using Kipling’s work)
• Proferssorships in imperial history in unis- eg Vere Harmsworth Chair at Cambridge established in 1919
• GA Henty remained popular
• Feaure films eg Sanders of the River (1935) and The Four Feathers (1939) used the Empire as a backdrop
• Composers vaunted imperial theme- Elgar at the Wembley Exhibition 1924 conducted mass choirs signing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’
• Large traders, eg Co-Operative Wholesale Soc, celebrated imperial links in adverts esp for tea sake
• People had informal links to empire- soldiers, former missionaries speaking in churches about their experiences, relatives in dominions
• Empire Day growing in popularity