---
title: Telegraph Less
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-telegraph-less-zero-1939/
description: A long banner poster shows the words 'Telegraph less' in stencil-style black letters on a torn grey-and-white strip.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Telegraph Less

[![Telegraph Less, 1939 UK poster: A long banner poster shows the words 'Telegraph less' in stencil-style black letters](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-telegraph-less-zero-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-telegraph-less-zero-1939.jpg)

# Telegraph Less

A long banner poster shows the words 'Telegraph less' in stencil-style black letters on a torn grey-and-white strip, followed by an equals sign and Morse-like dashes, over brush-painted red. It gives a bare instruction with no stated reason; the tell for the one tag is the unexplained implied good ('less' equals support for the war effort).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
TELEGRAPH LESS =
[Morse-style dashes]
ZERO
P.R.D. 293.
Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Johnson, Riddle & Co., Ltd., London S.E.16. 51-3446
```

[← Telegraph Less - Telephone Less](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-telegraph-less-telephone-less-gpo-1939/) [Telephone-less →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-telephone-less-gpo-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
