--- title: Charles Masterman url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/charles-masterman/ description: 5 verified quotes from Charles Masterman, Head of the War Propaganda Bureau (Wellington House); Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1914 to 1915, with… section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a pre-1914 imperial intelligence-dossier collage of colonial telegraph logs, sepia field photography and empire maps.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-pre1914.jpg) [Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · United Kingdom # Charles Masterman ![Charles Masterman in 1923, from the Illustrated London News](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/images/asquith-government/charles-masterman.jpg) [Photo](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1923_CFG_Masterman.jpg): Unknown (photographer not credited by the Illustrated London News), Public domain (PD-UK-unknown, PD-US) Head of the War Propaganda Bureau (Wellington House); Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1914 to 1915 · United Kingdom On the regime page: [Asquith government](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/asquith-government/#charles-masterman) 5 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=charles-masterman). 1. > “Imagine, for example, the twentieth century interpreted to the twenty-fifth by its popular newspapers: to-day, more certainly than its popular drama, the abstract and chronicle of the time.” — 1909 · Book — In the opening chapter of his survey of English society, written while he was a junior minister in Asquith's Government, Masterman considers how future readers would judge the age from its press. — C. F. G. Masterman, The Condition of England (London: Methuen, 1909), p. 3 (chapter 'The Spirit of the People') [Source](https://archive.org/details/conditionofengla00mastiala) 2. **Content note:** Contempt for a social class; wishes death on a hypothetical person. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “Having attained so dolorous a consummation, perhaps the best that can be hoped for him is the advent of that friendly bullet which will terminate his inglorious life. Were this accomplished, the next day his own newspapers, the high priests of his religion, will rejoice over his death, and shamelessly gird at him for being what he is — the faithfullest of worshippers at their shrine.” — 1909 · Book — In the chapter on the lower-middle-class suburbs of London, Masterman describes a clerk who reads only sporting and competition newspapers and, in this passage, comments on his fate. — C. F. G. Masterman, The Condition of England (London: Methuen, 1909), p. 94 (chapter 'The Suburbans') [Source](https://archive.org/details/conditionofengla00mastiala) 3. > “I think that attitude explains more than anything else the combination of truculence and contempt which runs through all the German communications, and caused those who received them in London from day to day and hour to hour, to think that God must have made them quite blind.” — 1915 · Article — The pamphlet names Masterman as formerly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a Member of the Cabinet. It reviews the first year of the war and is dated by its text to the anniversary of Britain's declaration of war. — C. F. G. Masterman, After Twelve Months of War (London: Darling & Son, 1915), pamphlet, p. 9 [Source](https://archive.org/details/aftertwelvemonth00mast) 4. > “The proclamation of war was cheered by delirious crowds in Berlin and Vienna. I wonder what kind of a crowd, in either capital, could be gathered together to cheer that proclamation to-day !” — 1915 · Article — The pamphlet names Masterman as formerly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a Member of the Cabinet. It reviews the first year of the war and is dated by its text to the anniversary of Britain's declaration of war. — C. F. G. Masterman, After Twelve Months of War (London: Darling & Son, 1915), pamphlet, p. 8 [Source](https://archive.org/details/aftertwelvemonth00mast) 5. > “We were sure of victory when we launched the ultimatum a year ago, telling Germany to clear out of Belgium or challenge the might of the British Empire. We are sure of victory to-day.” — 1915 · Article — The pamphlet names Masterman as formerly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and a Member of the Cabinet. It reviews the first year of the war and is dated by its text to the anniversary of Britain's declaration of war. — C. F. G. Masterman, After Twelve Months of War (London: Darling & Son, 1915), pamphlet, p. 15 (closing lines) [Source](https://archive.org/details/aftertwelvemonth00mast)