ABSTRACT
The Home Secretary in 1914, moreover, was Sir Reginald McKenna, a convinced Liberal as we have seen. If there were to be any repression, McKenna would have had to at least accept, if not orchestrate it. McKenna would have resigned if anything other than 'business as usual' had been the policy of the government. The Press Association, was considerably in advance of government opinion which ultimately advised it to print what it liked. Given the enthusiasm with which the war was welcomed in 1914, the government could, at least initially, count on volunteer propagandists to do this work. The ultra-patriotic response of the national church encouraged other denominations and sects to rally to the war effort to avoid seeming insufficiently patriotic. While many nonconforming denominations and sects were pacific-ist, none were willing to renounce recourse to arms in all cases. Some had opposed the Boer War. The First World War, most quickly concluded, was a just war, even a crusade.
