BRITISH PRIME MINISTER.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20085, 14 November 1930, Page 22

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER.

AN EXPENSIVE HONOUR.

SALARY INADEQUATE. (FROM Otra OWN COEEESroNDENT.) LONDON % October 9. That the salary of the Prime' Minister should be. raised from £SOOO to £7OOO per annum is a recommendation made in tho report of the Select Conjmittee on .Ministers' Remuneration. The report is now published as a White Paper. '' . ' - Mr Bald-win, Mr Lloyd George, and Mr -Ramsay Mac Donald, who gave evidence before the committee, all admitted the inadequacy of the present Prime Ministerial salary, and the unpleasantness of No. 10 Downing; Street lrom the housekeeping point ot view." "Downing street," said Mr Baldwin, "is extraordinarily inconvenient in every other respect. The electric light and.gas bills are enormous." Mr'Lloytl George was indignant. ''lt' is perfectly preposteroiv?," he declared, "that a Lord Chancellor should be getting £IO,OOO, while the Prime Minister is only getting £SOOO. Take the Attorney-General and the. SolicitorGeneral. 1 think it is outrageous that | thev should be Teceiving. something like £40,000 a year, one, £25,000 ana the otrtjer £15,000. . The Prime* Minister's salary oi £SOOO is ludicrousVy ' inadequate, and' is equal to £2500 be-, fore the war. 1 He thouglit that tlie cost ot private td 'a -Prime would ■be £IOOO a year, but said: "My wife could tell you much better than 1 can. How she managed -to <io it 1 don't know." ' - "I Do Not Like Ho. io." rMr . MaeDonald agreed ■ that the • \vork; of: a; modern Prime Minister, is vastly-greater than it used to be 1 when salaries were first fixed. ...-. - ' ?'I could not live at Hampstead and do my work, here (House and. fin iny wnrW ns' Prithf* 1 apologise, but perhaps I might just , tell you .this, I am up in .the morning at half-past six' and* I rarely go to bed before one. At nine o'clock I am at work with; secretaries,; boxes, and dispatches. I cannot get - them away up to the top of Hampstead Hill. ' I have to come to my work. It takes half an hour by a. good car to get down to' Downing" street. Then, of course, ■ there-. are - all sorts -of other -things; .yt«i have got-to: have-;your "clothes ;bv : you, and so - on. Without .-going into details, I believe a - Prime Minister cannot live in Hampstead and do his [ work, here when the House of Com- ! moiis is sitting. . Therefore, very , much against my will—because I do not like No. 10. Downing Street, my people do not, like No. 10, we love our own house—very .much against my will and all our . wills we decided to>, come down to No. 10, Downing*' Street. Servants Not Paid Tor. Mr Mac Donald said . that ill : regard" to the burdens ori the Prime Minister, there . had. been an improvement since 1924, and .continued: : in 1924, for instance, if' I sat in tho Cabinet room, where I . think most .Cabinet Ministers' sat and did their work,; you paid for. the light and the coal; but I have not worked in - the'. Cabinet room: I have always worked in the room immediately above it, which has generally been a .bedroom, for-other Prime '.Ministers; . but working; up there-1 had to pay for my own coal and light..That was the case in 1924; itis not the case now. In 1924 I had to bring all my household goods, plate, and so on. That ,is not the case now. They have changed that. Theiy are doing much more at No. W now than they did before. "■ There is a staff of men messengers downstairs. They- .are paid for by the Treasury, but all the maids are paid for by me. The kitchen is tun by me, and that means, I think, four servants more "than I usually 'employ, and so on. It is a bit of an. expense. - The .entertainment side of No. 10 is very much* a matter of a Prime Minister's sensepf decency and conscience. My rule—it is only my that I never ask. anything from the Government Entertainment Fund which has got-the least aspect of a, ipersonal entertainment. Practically the whole of my Naval Conference entertainment lias been, done out of my own pocket. I have.recovered a little from the Entertainment Fund. . - Mr Mac Donald sai dthat,a Prime Minister without any private income and dependent on his salary of £SOOO alone would-have practically nothing left if he bore the cost of such semi-official gatherings. . j Any prime Minister in this country ! without a private income would be on the Poor Law in two years after he left office unless he was an extremely careful person and unless he was supported by friends. It is no use closing your eyes to the fact.