No
one could escape them.
It was Le Bas who created the phrase "Your King and Country Need You"
that went echoing throughout the Kingdom and drew more men to the
colours perhaps than any other plea of the war.
When the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee became the Parliamentary War
Savings Committee, Le Bas went with it. Its first job was to sell the
Great War Loan. The Treasury officials wanted it done in the usual
dignified British way.
At the first meeting of the Committee, Le Bas objected to this
procedure. Early the next morning he went around to the house of
Reginald McKenna, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
"The Chancellor is in his bath," said the footman who opened the door.
"Then I'll wait until he can get a robe on," said Le Bas.
Fifteen minutes later, the man who holds the British purse strings sat
clad in a dressing gown and listened to the suggestion that
revolutionised British methods of financial salesmanship.
"If we want to sell the War Loan, Mr. Chancellor," said Sir Hedley, "we
will have to advertise in a big way. It's a business proposition and we
must adopt business methods."
"It sounds interesting," said the Chancellor. "Come to my office at ten
and we will talk it over."
It was then 8:30 o'clock. By the time he met the Chancellor at the
Treasury he had dictated the whole outline of the advertising campaign.
The scheme was adopted: the Government spent fifty thousand pounds
advertising the loan but it sold every penny of it.
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