The Press. Wednesday, June 27, 1917. A Minister's Mistakes.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15938, 27 June 1917, Page 6

The Press. Wednesday, June 27, 1917. A Minister's Mistakes.

Wo do not think the Hon. G. W. Hussoll will find many Ministers of experience to agree with the views ho has latoly put forward as to the rights of individual membors Of a Cabinet. We shall bo surprised, for example, if ho receives from Sir Joseph Ward uny support in the attitude he has assumed, und we shall bo still more surprised if tho Prime Minister does not intimate very plainly that Mr llussell's ideas of Ministerial .responsibility and loyalty to one's colleagues are not thoso which are usually accepted, and that ho cannot be allowed to set up a standard of his own in these matters. The latest case in point is his attitude in regard to tho shipping fusion. The Acting-Prime Minister having received :i telegram from Sir James Mills on this subject, Mr Russell rushes in with si long statement to n newspaper giving his views as to what should be done, and justifies his action ij t the following words: "As Minister of Marine I "have the immediate responsibility "of this momentous matter, and I "claim tho right to put before the " country this reply to the cablegram "received from Sir Jambs Mills in support of tho fusion proposals." Apart from the question of Ministerial responsibility we should havo thonght that, as a matter of ordinary courtesy, when the acting head of the Government receives a letter or a telegram it is his place to reply to it, and that it very closely borders on impertinence if to mo other person, even a member of tho Cabinet* takes upon himself to

deal with the communication. But apart from this aspect of the case the view taken by Mr Russell as to his position as Minister of Marine is one ] which we should expect to find publicly expressed only by a Minister excessively new to office, or one with a greatly inflated idea of his own importance. As IJinistcr of Marine, Mr Russell is charged with the administration of his department, and no one, except perhaps tho Prime Minister, has any right to interfere with his control of the departmental work. But we need hardly say that such a large question of policy as the proposed purchase of the Union Steam Ship Company, lock, stock and barrel, is a mattor for the whole Cabinet to deal with, and Mr Russell's opinion on tho subject is entitled to no more weight and authority than that of any other member of the Ministry. Moreover, it is surely hardly necessary to add that whatever views Mr liusscll entertained on such an important matter, on the eve of its j being submitted to Cabinet, these should have been communicated in the first instance to tho Acting-Primc Minister or the Prime Minister himself and his colleagues, and not to any chance newspaper reporter who came into Mr Russell's office. Unfortunately, Mr Russell's indiscretions of this kind are not confined to matters connectcd ever so remotely with his own department. It can hardly bo contended, for example, that the Minister of Marine has tho prerogative of making appointmenta to the Legislative Council. Yet it was only the other day that Mr Russell, through his usual medium of a newspaper interview, was laying bare to an astonished world his views as to what ought to be dono in tho matter of filling tip a depleted Legislative Council, and oven naming certain gentlemen as being in his judgment most suitable for appointment. We can only again express our regret that a Minister who has shown himself possessed cf initiative and administrative ability should also display at intervals such surprising errors of judgment and such a marked decline from the canons of good taste.