THE NEW CABINET

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1924, Page 5

THE NEW CABINET

WHO'S WHO.

Mr. James Ramsay Macdonald England s first Labour Prime Minieter' was n™,- 7 years ago- He started work at 12, lilting; potatoes, but at 18 he had attained to the position of a chemical analyist in London. At the age of 19. he tasted hardship and unemployment. From 1887 to 1891 he was private secretary to the late Rt. Hon. Thomas Lough, M.P., after which he followed the callin" of a journalist... He helped to start "The Socialist, • a periodical popular among workers,, served on the executive of the Fabian Society, and was active in boys' clubs. At Southampton, wheti he was 30 years of age, he fought and lost his first Parliamentary election. Leicester turned him down in 1900, but elected him m 1906, and was faithful tb~ him until 1918. In 1922 he was elected for Aberavon, and again returned last December: In 1902 he tourned South Africa' and wrote, as a result' of his deductions a severe criticism cjf' the Boer War He later visited India, Canada,- Australia, New Zealand 'and many Continental countries. _At the outbreak of the Great War he joined with Messrs. Norman Angell; E. D. Morel, and Charles. Trevelyan in starting the Union of Democratic Control. HifT advocacy of ration al peace terms brought him years of bitter persecution, but events have iustifieci the stand he took. Ir, 1896 he married Miss Margaret Gladstone, daughter of Dr. J. H. Gladstone, FR S and until her death in 19H she was the closest comrade of all his work Mi.. J. H. Thomas Secretary' for the Colonies has long been prominent in Trade Union circles. His chairmanship of the Labour Cohgress of 1920 has been praised in the most expert circles His decisions were quick and illuminating he was careful that minorities should" receive due hearing and no problem of Union of Railwaymen, and is now political general secretary of that organisation, having at his back 200,000 workers who give him loyal support. .He is an internationalist, and lie had hoped that United Labour would have averted the late war He has twice declined office m Coalition Governments. He wir .elected M.P. for Derby in *°J was again returned for the same electorate last December. - v Sir Sidney Olivier, Secretary for India, second son of the Re/ ' w A Olivier, of Winchfield, was born in 1859 He entered the Colonial Office in mt was Secretary of the Fabian Soo^tv from 1886 to 1890, acb^CWonial Secretary of British Honduras 1890-91 Audi--895-96' 1897, Colonial Secretary* 1899-1904. and aclin s Governor nf .1 same island 19C0, 1902, and iSw Worn 1907. to 1913 he was Go'vernoroTjanSc'a .cutaiM. Bo baa *&&*£££s,

on various subjects, and has written extensively on Socialism and Economics. Viscount Ohelmsford, First Lord of the Admiralty, was Governor of Queensland from 1905 till 1909, and Governor of New South Wales from 1909 till 1913. In his younger days he was a barrister '■of some prominence, and was an Alderman of the London County Council.

Mr. Stephen Walsh, Secretary of War, is of Irish descent, but was born in Liverpool. At 14 he went to Ashton-in-Makerfield, where for 18 years he followed the occupation of a miner. In 1901 he became a miners'- agent, and removed to Wigan, and has sat continuously since 1906 as member of the Ince Division of Lancashire, where his majority has always beep four figures—when it has not 'keen five. From 1917 to 1919 he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, and he "is senior vicechairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. He is an admirable debater — fluent, forcible, and picturesque. Viscount Haldane, Lord Chancellor, occupied a similar office from 1912 to 1915. He is a member «i the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and has been looked upon as one of the most scholarly of modern Englishmen. He became a barrister -in 1879 and a Q.C. in 1890. He is the author of many-works on philosoph>al subjects, as. well as being compiler of the life of Adam Smith. ,

Mr. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Labour member for Coln£ Valley, is one of his party's most powerful orators.' He was first elected to Parliament as member for Blackburn in 1906, but was rejected in 1918, but was again elected to the same constituency last December. He was chairman of the National Council 'of the I.L.P. from 1903 to 1906, and again from 1917 to 1920. Mr. Snowden has been a member of the Liquor Control Board, and of various Royal Commissions, as well as being a fellow of the Eoyal Statistical Society. His books on economic subjects are known in many lands. ; Mr. J. R. Clynes, Lord Privy Seal and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, is one of seven children of an Irish labourer. At the age of 10 he was employed in a cotton mill, from which he graduated as a union oTganiser. In 1918-19, as Food Controller, strange office for one who, as a child, so often went hungry, he earned superlative praise, and in 1921 he became chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. He has represented the Platting division of Manchester since 1906.

Lord Parmoor, Lord President of the ; Council, Hvas Conservative member for the Stroud division of Gloucestershire from 1895 to N I9OO, Stretford division of Lancashire 1901-06, and the Wycombe djvision of Bucks 1910-14. 'He is a K.C. and a judicial member of the Privy Council, and has published works on legal subjects. Mr. Arthur Henderson, Secretary of State for Home Affairs, is one of the most capable statesmen of the Labour movement, and a leading negotiator and constructive thinker in industrial affairs. 1n'1903 he was returned for the Barnard Castle division, which he retained until 1918. In 1919 he was returned for Widnes, but was rejected in 1922, and last December he was rejected 'by Newcastle East. As secretary for the Labour Party he has long been responsible for all its administrative and electoral work. He was the first Labour member to join the Asquith Govern- , ment) and tie continued in one Cabinet j office after another until -he resigned jiduring the Lloyd George regime. /He j has been a valued Labour negotiator, | and has rendered valuable service on various local bodies, as well as in Parlia- ! ment. ■ '

Brigadier-General C. B. Thomson, Secretary of State'for Air, is a sapper officer with extensive military and diplomatic experience. He wrote a critical account of the Balkan war of 1913 for the War Office, and later was military attache in Belgrade and Sofia, and combated German propaganda in SouthEastern Europe. He was present at the Paris Conference, and is the author of the book, "Old Europe's Suicide." • Mr.~ Sidney Webb, President of the Board of Trade, who was born in 1859, is a Londoner. . From a clerkship in early manhood', he passed into the Civil Service. He resigned in 1891 and later became an expert on local government. He was' the principal founder of the London School o Economics, and member of many Royal Commissions. For some years he has represented the Seaham division of Durham, where the miners on one occasion gave him a-majority of 11,888.- Last year he was chairman of the Labour Party. Mr. Thomas Shaw, Minister of Labour, was from- the age of ten a worker in. a cotton mill. He is now joint secretary of a reconstructed Labour and Socialist International, and has long held office in various trade unions. He was at one time secretary of the Colne Weavers and of the Northern Counties' Textile Trades' Federation. He was a member of the recent Labour delegation to the Ruhr, and is on the Parliamentary executive of his garty. During the past three elections he has succeeded iti being returned as senior of the twomember electorate of Preston.

Mr. Vernor Hartshorn, PostmasterGeneral, was born at Pontywann, Monmouthshire. An underground worker from his boyhood, he became a clerk in a colliery company's office at Cardiff, and later a miner's agent. He was'a member of the Coaj Controller's Advisory Committee in the war years, and has always been prominent in miners' union circles. He is as able with the pen as with the tongue. As member for Ogmare he has been prominent in Labour matters for some years, and jn 1918 was returned unopposed, the afarne honour being conferred on him in December.

Cdlonel_ Josiah Clement Wedgwood, Chancellor of the Duchy ,'of Lancaster, ■was born in 1872, aiid is a .member of. the great' English pottery family. In early life he went in for naval engineering, and was apprenticed at Elswick. He became assistant-naval constructor at Portsmouth, and later returned to Elswick to enter the well-known firm of Armstrong' 6. He captained the Elswick Battery in tho Boer War, and later became Resident,' Magistrate of Ermelo, South Africa. He was elected as a Liberal M.P. for Newcastle-under-Lyne in 1906, and-sent buck each election he has earned fame as a Back Bencher, champion obstructionist, and tireless fighter for the "under-dog." During the Great War he saw much fighting,in France and Belgium, and" also took a squadron of armed cars to Gallipoli, where he earned fame and a D.S.O. on Helles Beach.

Mr. John Wheatley, Minister of Health, lived with his parents in a single-roomed apartment house in Lanarkshire for many years, working during the day in a coal mine. He is now in business in Glasgow as a publisher, and in 1922 he was first sent to Parliament by the Shettleston Division of Glasgow, by which he was again returned last year. For some years, he occupied a seat on the Lanarkshire' County Council, and is still a member of tho Glasgow Town Council. He is the chosen spokesman of his party on Vents and housing. Miu_Noel fiuxtoii, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, joined the Labour Party five years ago. The son of a landowner, lie'was the first man to advocate in the House of Commons an agricultural wages board, and in 1917.he supported 'n minimum wage clause for the Agriculture Act. He has inherited much wealth, Jjut supports the capital levy. Seeing, years beforehand, tlie outcome of Sir Edward Grey's transformation of the Knletil-o Into » "niiilturj! nlliiwca wit.li France m**-""':. Qfxamyi h«t l&{usi *

Foreign Affairs Group in Parliament. He represented Northern Norfolk from 1910 to 1918, when he was rejected, to be again returned in 1922, and again last year."

_ Mr. William Adamson, Minister for Scotland, was at one time a coal.miner in Fife. For years'he has been general secretary of the Fife, Kinross, and Clackmannan Miners' Association, and in 1911 he was returned to Parliament for West Fife, a seat he has held continuously ever since. Prom 1917 to 1921 he was chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. / J

Mr. C. P. Trevelyan, President of the Board of Education, ,is the son of Sir George Trevelyan, nephew and biographer of- the great historian Macaulay. In 1894 he visited America, Australia, and New Zealand, and the following year fought his first unsuccessful election at North Lambeth. In 1899 he was elected M.P. for the Ellad Division of Yorkshire. He held the seat through four General Elections, and became one of the most active speakers against Protection and the House of Lords. In 1908 he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education. He was in those days attached to the Liberals, but in 1914 he openly expressed his Socialistic beliefs. In 1918 he was rejected by Ellad, and has since represented the Central Division of Newcastle-pn-Tyne. MrrF. W. JcHvett, First Commissioner of Works, at 8 years of age, was a worker in a textile factory at Bradford. Elected for Bradford East in 1906, he was not defeated until 1918, but was again returned in 1922. He has long been at the forefront of matters relating to municipal Socialism.