A NEW AIR MINISTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 114, 17 May 1938, Page 6

A NEW AIR MINISTER.

The reconstruction of: Mr. Chamberlain's Cabinet, announced to-day, had been long expected, and was overdue, but recent events invest one of the major changes with peculiar interest and importance. Lord Swinton, Secretary of State for Air, has resigned, and Sir Kingsley Wood is appointed in his place. When the Cadman Committee recently made a severely critical report on the state o£ British civil aviation, it was remarked by experienced observers that British military aviation was equally—nnd perhaps more—in need of a similar examination and overhaul. Since then the House of Commons has mr-" manifest its dissatisfaction with the pmgreaa of rearmament as far as the Royal Air Force is concerned, and the explanations of Government spokesmen have not convinced it that all is well, or nearly well. Mr. Chamberlain, not for the first time, has responded to the feeling of the House, and he has done so promptly and decisively. His choice of a newMinisterial head has fallen on one who, as Postmaster-General, earned high praise as a vigorous and far-sighted administrator. Added to his personal qualifications is the advantage that, unlike Lord Swinton, he sits in the Commons. Among the other Cabinet changes the one of most« interest to the Dominions is tho tmnsfer of Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, who is 37, from the Dominions Office to the Colonial Office. In the light of the grave problems nowconcerning the Government, notably in Palestine, this appointment must be regarded as a striking expression of confidence in one of the youngest British politicians of modern times.