Bennett's attitude to the First World War was that British politicians had been at fault in failing to prevent it, but that once it had become inevitable it was right that Britain should join its allies against the Germans. He turned his attention from writing plays and novels to his journalism, aiming to inform and encourage the public not only in Britain but also in allied and neutral countries. He served on official and unofficial committees, and in 1915 he was invited to visit France to see conditions at the front and write about them for readers at home. The collected impressions appeared in a book called "Over There" (1915). When Lord Beaverbrook became Minister of Information in February 1918 he appointed Bennett to take charge of propaganda in France. Beaverbrook fell ill in October 1918 and made Bennett director of propaganda, in charge of the whole ministry for the last weeks of the war. At the end of 1918 Bennett was offered, but declined, a knighthood in the new Order of the British Empire instituted by George V.