---
title: 'Warning: The Sharp Ears of Enemy Agents Are Always Listening for Scraps of Information'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-warning-sharp-ears-of-enemy-agents-1942/
description: A text-only poster under the Canadian coat of arms lists seven subjects not to discuss, from ship movements to supply stores. (1 of 2)
section: Collection
---

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3. Warning: The Sharp Ears of Enemy Agents Are Always Listening

[![Warning: The Sharp Ears of Enemy Agents Are Always Listening for Scraps of Information, 1942 Canada poster: A text-only](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-warning-sharp-ears-of-enemy-agents-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-warning-sharp-ears-of-enemy-agents-1942.jpg)

# Warning: The Sharp Ears of Enemy Agents Are Always Listening for Scraps of Information

A text-only poster under the Canadian coat of arms lists seven subjects not to discuss, from ship movements to supply stores. The tells are the unseen 'Enemy Agents' always listening, which makes ordinary talk a danger, and the coat of arms, which lends state authority.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
WARNING

The sharp ears of Enemy Agents
are always listening
for scraps of information

DON'T LET YOUR CARELESS
TALK HELP THE ENEMY

DO NOT DISCUSS
SHIP MOVEMENTS
DEFENCE PLANS
MUNITIONS FACTORIES
TROOP MOVEMENTS
HARBOUR FACILITIES
AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION
SUPPLY STORES

BE ON YOUR GUARD

AG-4E
Issued by the Director of Public Information, Ottawa, by Authority
of Hon. J. T. Thorson, Minister of National War Services.
PRINTED IN CANADA

[motto on the arms:] A MARI VSQVE AD MARE
```

[← Wanted: Paper of All Kinds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-wanted-paper-of-all-kinds-1942/) [Zipped Lips (Canadian careless-talk poster, no printed title) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-zipped-lips-1942/)

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- [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)
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- [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)