---
title: Un mot de trop... un vaisseau de moins. Soyez discrets! [One word too many... one ship fewer. Be discreet!]
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-un-mot-de-trop-soyez-discrets-1942/
description: Four stacked bands run from a speaking mouth to an ear, a submarine surfacing beside a convoy, and a capsized ship.
section: Collection
---

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3. Un mot de trop... un vaisseau de moins. Soyez discrets! [One word too

[![Un mot de trop... un vaisseau de moins. Soyez discrets! \[One word too many... one ship fewer. Be discreet!\], 1942 Canada](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-un-mot-de-trop-soyez-discrets-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-un-mot-de-trop-soyez-discrets-1942.jpg)

# Un mot de trop... un vaisseau de moins. Soyez discrets! [One word too many... one ship fewer. Be discreet!]

Four stacked bands run from a speaking mouth to an ear, a submarine surfacing beside a convoy, and a capsized ship, linked by white arrows under the French slogan 'Un mot de trop... un vaisseau de moins'. The tell is the causal chain: one spoken word is drawn as leading directly to a sinking, and the call 'Soyez discrets!' places the risk on each listener.

## 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

```
UN MOT
DE TROP....
UN VAISSEAU
DE MOINS

Soyez DISCRETS!

CODE A G-15FL  •  PUBLIÉ PAR LA COMMISSION DE L'INFORMATION DE GUERRE, OTTAWA  •  IMPRIMÉ AU CANADA
```

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

```
ONE WORD
TOO MANY....
ONE SHIP
FEWER

Be DISCREET!

CODE A G-15FL  •  PUBLISHED BY THE WAR INFORMATION COMMISSION, OTTAWA  •  PRINTED IN CANADA
```

[← They're Smashing Them Up ... With MY Ship!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-theyre-smashing-them-up-with-my-ship-taber-1942/) [Wanted: Paper of All Kinds →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-wanted-paper-of-all-kinds-1942/)

## 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)