---
title: En Garde. Les agents de l'ennemi ont l'oreille exercée à recueillir toutes sortes de renseignements [On Guard. The enemy's agents have an ear trained to gather all kinds of information]
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-en-garde-agents-ennemi-french-1940/
description: A text-only French-language poster under the Canadian royal arms warns that enemy agents have an ear trained to collect every kind of information.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. En Garde. Les agents de l'ennemi ont l'oreille exercée à recueillir

[![En Garde. Les agents de l'ennemi ont l'oreille exercée à recueillir toutes sortes de renseignements \[On Guard. The enemy's](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-en-garde-agents-ennemi-french-1940.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-en-garde-agents-ennemi-french-1940.jpg)

# En Garde. Les agents de l'ennemi ont l'oreille exercée à recueillir toutes sortes de renseignements [On Guard. The enemy's agents have an ear trained to gather all kinds of information]

A text-only French-language poster under the Canadian royal arms warns that enemy agents have an ear trained to collect every kind of information, and lists seven subjects not to discuss, from ship movements to aircraft production. The fear appeal is the unseen listener: the reader is told the enemy is gathering their casual talk.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (French) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
EN GARDE

Les agents de l'ennemi ont
l'oreille exercée à recueillir
toutes sortes de renseignements

N'ÉCHAPPEZ AUCUN PROPOS
QUI POURRAIT AIDER L'ENNEMI

NE DISCUTEZ PAS
DES MOUVEMENTS DE NAVIRES
DES OUVRAGES DE DÉFENSE
DES USINES DE MUNITIONS
DES MOUVEMENTS DE TROUPES
DE L'AMÉNAGEMENT DES PORTS
DE LA PRODUCTION DES AVIONS
DES ENTREPÔTS D'APPROVISIONNEMENTS

SOYEZ SUR VOS GARDES

Publiée par le Service de l'Information, Ottawa, avec l'autorisation
de l'hon. J. G. Gardiner, ministre des Services nationaux de guerre.
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
ON GUARD

The enemy's agents have an ear
trained to gather
all kinds of information

LET NO REMARK SLIP
THAT COULD HELP THE ENEMY

DO NOT DISCUSS
SHIP MOVEMENTS
DEFENCE WORKS
MUNITIONS FACTORIES
TROOP MOVEMENTS
PORT DEVELOPMENT
AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION
SUPPLY DEPOTS

BE ON YOUR GUARD

Published by the Information Service, Ottawa, with the authorisation
of the Hon. J. G. Gardiner, Minister of National War Services.
```

[← Careless Talk Brings Tragedy in Wartime](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-careless-talk-brings-tragedy-jameson-1940/) [Fast and Steady Speeds My Lathe So Hitler Gets a Closer Shave! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-fast-and-steady-speeds-my-lathe-1940/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)