He kept his pledge: You buy peace bonds

Poster depicting John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe and Supreme Commander of the British Home Fleet. The text urges the viewer to buy peace bonds. Criticised for his tactics in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, in which Jellicoe was reluctant to risk losing ships or men's lives, he was seen as overly cautious. Fought in the North Sea off the Danish coast on 31 May 1916, the battle of Jutland was the biggest naval engagement of the First World War and was the only direct confrontation between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet. The battle involved 274 warships and over 70,000 sailors and by the time the opposing fleets finally broke contact in the small hours of 1 June, the British had lost 14 ships and 6,784 men, and the Germans 11 ships and 3,209 men. Jutland was narrow tactical victory for the Germans but ultimately proved to be a strategic victory for the British - the German High Seas Fleet never again ventured into the North Sea on a significant scale.

Many countries involved in the war realised that they would need more funds to resource their campaigns, and accordingly developed war loan programs. These programs encouraged the population to purchase government war bonds which would be repaid with interest, and assist the war effort. The loan subscriptions were extremely successful in Australia, often exceeding the targeted amount. As the conflict drew to a close, the posters promised that the purchase of bonds bring a speedy resolution to the war.

Following the war, 'Peace Loan' campaigns were launched to recoup the cost of the war and fund soldier pensions. Peace loans functioned along the same lines of the war loans, in that people 'lent' the government money in return for interest.