---
title: Don't Discuss Military Matters - Telephones Can Be Tapped
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-discuss-military-matters-telephones-tapped-uk-1939/
description: A woman on the telephone says 'Yes, Billy - this is Geraldine speaking'; a cartoon figure up a telegraph pole with a headset answers 'And this is Jerry
section: Collection
---

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3. Don't Discuss Military Matters - Telephones Can Be Tapped

[![Don't Discuss Military Matters - Telephones Can Be Tapped, 1939 UK poster: A woman on the telephone says 'Yes, Billy - this](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-discuss-military-matters-telephones-tapped-uk-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-discuss-military-matters-telephones-tapped-uk-1939.jpg)

# Don't Discuss Military Matters - Telephones Can Be Tapped

A woman on the telephone says 'Yes, Billy - this is Geraldine speaking'; a cartoon figure up a telegraph pole with a headset answers 'And this is Jerry listening...!', above 'Don't discuss military matters - telephones can be tapped'. The tell is the threat of an unseen enemy listener; the poster is a security warning in cartoon form.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
YES, BILLY
-THIS IS
GERALDINE
SPEAKING..

YES, SILLY
-AND THIS
IS JERRY
LISTENING...!

Don't Discuss
Military Matters
TELEPHONES
can be TAPPED
[code:] 3995/PMEE/3
```

[← 'Dig for Victory' (British Ministry of Agriculture poster, child with spade)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dig-for-victory-child-poster-1939/) [Don't Waste Kitchen Scraps: The Nation Needs Them Now →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-waste-kitchen-scraps-1939/)

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- [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.
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