War Office announces the "precautionary period"

On 29 July 1914, a few hours after the Admiralty, the British ministry of war – the War Office – sent telegrams to military units bringing in the so-called Precautionary Period. In the afternoon Prime Minister H. H. Asquith met the Army Council and approved the dispatch of a warning to all units of the British Army. At the time Asquith was also in charge of the War Office itself, which he had run personally since the spring of 1914.

The Precautionary Period was a stage laid down in the so-called War Book, a detailed plan of action in the event of war drawn up before 1914 under the direction of the secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, Maurice Hankey. In it every ministry had set out what it was to do on receiving a given signal. This allowed the government to set war preparations in motion without announcing mobilisation, which would have been a far more provocative step.

The effects of the telegrams were visible almost immediately. Soldiers were recalled from leave, guards were posted at bridges, viaducts and other important sites, coastal defences were manned and ports were made ready in case of war. Everything proceeded according to a timetable fixed in advance, with no need to take separate decisions on each matter.

The introduction of the Precautionary Period did not yet settle whether Great Britain would enter the war. Asquith’s government was still divided on the question, and many ministers hoped the country could be kept out of the conflict. The army and the navy, however, began preparing so that, should war be decided upon, not a single day would be lost.