NEW MINISTERS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 120, 15 February 1926, Page 7

NEW MINISTERS

BILL TO DISPENSE WITH REELECTION ENABLING APPOINTMENT OF BEST MEN WITHOUT FEAR OF LOSS OF SEAT By Telbgraj’H.— PiiEss Association. ■ Copyright. London, February 12. In the House of Commons the Reelection of Ministers Bill was moved by Mr. G. C. Clayton (Conservative). The Bill dispenses with the necessity of new members of the Cabinet seeking reelection. The mover urged that the Bill should be adopted to enable the Prime Minister to select the best man without consideratio nof what his majority was at the last election. Major Hugh O’Neill (Conservative), in supporting the Bill, recalled Mr. Bonar Law’s similar Bill in 1919, which limited its application to .nine months after the elections. It was interesting to recall that nearly all the advocates of a. limit had since gained Ministerial rank, including Sir Samuel Hoare, Earl Winterton, Sir Philip Cnnliffe-Lister, and Lieut.-Colonel W. E. Guinness. The Rev. H. Dunnico (Labour) moved, and Sir J. A. R. Marriott (Conservative) seconded, the rejection of the Bill. Mr. Baldwin said he would vote for the Bill because its advantages outweighed its disadvantages, but the matter would be left to the free vote of the House. He added that admirably qualified men had been passed over because of the fear of losing the byelection. Labour members strongly opposed the Bill, which was read a second time by 143 votes to 74. ’ The House agreed to the Supplementary Estimates, which provide the. money for/ steel houses, without division. — Aiis.-N.Z. Cable Assn.