The End of the Story

Abstract

The Ministry of Information’s job in Europe was virtually finished before the war ended. Tied in its existence to the exigences of war time, the Ministry’s original reason for being became secondary when the thrust of propaganda shifted towards preparing Europeans to deal with Britain’s peace policies. Then the central propaganda issue was the projection of Britain as a responsible leader in post-war reconstruction. This propaganda (now termed publicity) was more appropriate to the peacetime methods of Foreign Office publicity channels. As the war waned the Foreign Office insisted on resuming its traditional role as the promoter of British foreign policy.¹