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Flashcards in Interwar Attitudes to Empire? Deck (3)
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1
Q

Explicit government efforts to promote the Empire?

A
  • 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)
2
Q

How popular were these exhibitions

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

- Glasgow: 12m visited in 1938

3
Q

Otherways that the empire was promoted?

A
  • 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