A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 154, 27 March 1937, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Professor Raymond Moley

Professor Raymoud Moley, professor of public law* at Columbia University, has condemned the method of President Roosevelt’s Supreme Court proposals. When President Roosevelt launched his New Deal lie had as the head of what was know n as his “Brains Trust” Professor Raymond Moley, a square-shouldered, pinkish-cheeked man, just turned 4G, with greying brown hair lightly thatching a highdomed head. He was reputed to be the closest adviser of the President. He was even credited with the conception of a constitutional dictatorship wherebv Congress delegated vast powers to the Executive to hike over the administrative branch of government and reorganise the economic order. To his influence, also, was ascribed the decision to take the United States off the gold standard, the inflation policy, the war debts course the Government is pursuing and stabilisation of currencies. Such was the pressure upon him for interviews that it was necessary for callers to make appointments days in advance, if they were lucky enough to be received at all. The Prime Minister.

The two exceptions to the proposal to give Cabinet Ministers in Great Britain £5OOO a year are the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor. It is proposed to increase the Prime Minister’s salary to £lO,OOO. and to leave the Lord Chancellor’s at its present figure of £lO,OOO. The Prime Minister is selected by the Crown and is himself entrusted with the selection of his colleagues in the Ministry. This principle was successfully established by Sir Robert Peel on his taking office iu 1834. The position of First or Prime Minister was not legally recognised until 1906. though it has actually been in existence since the time of Walpole (that is, the middle of the eighteenth century), who, however, repudiated the title. The former reluctance of Ministers to acknowledge the pre-eminence of any one of their number is still recognised in the expression primus inter pares (first among equals), describing the Prime Minister’s position at Cabinet meetings. It cannot be denied, however, that the Prime Minister’s authority is very great. He not only selects his colleagues, but has virtually the power of dismissal in individual cases: he exercises a general supervision over all executive departments; bishops aud other great ecclesiastics are nominated by him; peerages are bestowed on his recommendation; uo important Civil Service appointment may be made without his sanction; and, finally, his resignation involves the dissolution of the whole Cabinet. As the Prime Minister’s duties are of a general character, uo special department is allotted to him, and he usually takes the office of First Lord of the Treasury, which is practically a sinecure. Lord Chancellor.

The Lord Chancellor, or, to give him his accurate title, the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is the head of the judiciary. The appointment is strictly political and the holder of the office is always one of the most import ant members of Cabinet. As Keeper of the King’s Conscience he had, until recently, to be a member of the Established Church.

His salary is £lO,OOO a year (£lOOO as Speaker of the House of Lords and £6OOO as a judge), and however short his period of service he is entitled to a pension of £5OOO. He is expected, however, to do judicial work in return. As head of the judiciary he is responsible for the appointment of all judges of the High Court, and also of the county court judges, except those which fall within the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Lancaster. He is ex-oflicio a member of the Court of Appeal, and he presides over the House of Lords and the Privy Council in the exercise of their judicial functions. As Keeper of the Great Seal, it is impossible for him to leave the kingdom, at least constitutionally, so long as he holds office. Floods in the Fenland.

The defences in the Fenlaud, England, collapsed recently at one point, floofling several thousand acres. The Fenlands form a strip of country 70 miles long by 30 miles wide, stretching from near Lincoln southward to Cambridgeshire. Much of it is below high tide level, and consequently is in danger of being flooded by the rivers draining into the Wash. The marshes, however, have been so well-drained that the peat they contain is sometimes in summer so dry as to catch Are. The soil is either silt brought down by the rivers Witham, Nene, Welland and Ouse, or a black peaty soil of limited depth formed in long-standing swamps and resting on deep beds of boulder clay. It is extremely fertile and produces large crops of wheat, barley and potatoes, together with miscellaneous crops of poppies (for opium), woad, mustard, flax and fruit and flowers of many kinds. The towns of the Fen district stand on raised ground once forming islands iu the surrounding marsh; for example, the Isle of Ely. Many of the towns end in “ey” or “ea,” which often denotes an island or place near water. Position of Belgium.

King George VI is entertaining King Leopold of the Belgians, who is visiting England to have frank talks regarding the position of his country in European affairs. On November 27. 1936, Mr. Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, said: “It is no exaggeration to say that Belgium has a special place in the friendship of the British people. . . . Let me affirm once again that the independence and integrity of Belgium are of vital interest for this nation and that she could count upon our help were she ever the victim of unprovoked aggres sion. I say these words deliberately because I am confident that they repre sent the will of the British people, ami that to make tills plain is a coutribu tion to peace.” Belgium’s policy iu 1936 underwen' a profound change, and it is that change that has led to King Leopold’s visit to England. Since the war, and up to last October, Belgium had what was practically a defensive alliance with France. Now she has declared her reversion to her old policy of neutrality—a policy which, by the way. did not save her from German ambitions in 1914. As she holds, geographically. a key position as a buffer State between the British Channel ports and the European centre, the step is a political event of greatest importance. In announcing the severance of Bel gium’s military alliance and a return to pre-war neutrality, in October, King Leopold said: “An alliance, even if it is purely defensive, does not achieve its purpose, because however prompt might be the aid from our ally, it would come only after an onslaught by an invading army which would be deva stating.’’