Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1938. STRENGTHENING THE TEAM

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 115, 18 May 1938, Page 10

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1938. STRENGTHENING THE TEAM

Important changes in the personnel of the British government were announced yesterday. The Secretary of State for Air (Lord Swinton) and the Secretary of State for |the Colonies (Lord Harlech) have resigned, and Lord Winterton, who on March 11 joined, the Cabinet as representative of the Air Ministry in the House of Commons, resumes his former portfolio as. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The new appointments are: Secretary of State for Air, Sir Kingsley Wood (formerly Minister of Health); Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald (formerly Dominions Secretary); Secretary of State for the 'Dominions, Lord Stanley ((formerly' Under-Secretary for India and Burma); Minister of Health,* Mr. Walter Elliot (formerly Secretary of State for Scotland); Secretary of State for' Scotland, Mr. D. J. Colville (formerly Financial Secretary, to the Treasury). There are also a number of consequential appointments to Under-Secretary-ships, the most interesting of which is that Mr. A. J. Muirhead, who simultaneously with Lord Winterton's appointment in March undertook the task of dealing with civil aviation, becomes Under-Secretary for India. These Cabinet changes were adopted by the Prime Minister (Mr. Chamberlain) largely ds the result of the severe criticism in both Houses of the Air Ministry in relation to the new programme of rearmament. Previously, the conduct of civil aviation in Britain had been subjected to serious strictures in the report of the Cadman Commission appointed to deal with it. It was consequence of this report that the Prime Minister invited Lord Winterton' to join the Cabinet in order to deal with all major air questions on the service, while Mrl Muirhead was entrusted with the civil side". Other appointments were made for the supervision of details, including those of Sir Donald Banks #s Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Air; Mr. W. P. Hildred as Deputy Director-General of Civil Aviation, and Mr! C. J. Stewart as Director of Civil Research and Production. Last week", when the Air Ministry vote came up before the House of Commons' for debate, a further attack was launched on the Air Ministry not .only by the Opposition, but also by such independent Conservatives as Mr. Winston Churchill, who carries weight as an authority on all matters of defence as might be expected from his long experience. The substance of the attack was'a comparison of the British arid German air forces, their programmes and the rates of production "of new machines.-' Sir Hugh Seely (Labour), in moving a i reduction in,,.the salary of the Air Minister by $100 as a ( protest against his administration, said that Germany at present had 8000 aeroplanes, of which 3500 were frontline machines, and within a year would have 6000 first-line machines, whereas Britain, two years hencej would have only 2700. He added that Germany, was making' between 500 arid 600 aeroplanes a month, and that Britain at the end of the War in 1918 was capable of turning out 30,000 aeroplanes a year. Such an output was impossible today without a Minister of Supplies. He described the system under which they were now working as a "complete failure." When Lord Winterton said that the Royal Air Force machines compared more than favourably with those of other countries, Mr. Winston Churchill interrupted with the words: "It is. absolutely untrue." i The motion was defeated by a substantial majority, but in spite of the stout defence put up by Xoitd Winterton in the House of Commons and by Lord Swinton, supported.by Lord Weir, in the House of Lords members were left with an uneasy feeling that the position was not satisfactory. -Lord Swinton had already placed his resignation in the hands of the Prime Minister, who had refused to accept it, but after the debate it was obvious that the Government faced a crisis, described by the "Daily Mail" as "more serious than after *Mr. Eden's resignation." Both the Opposition as a whole and the Conservatives in part demanded an inquiry into the state of affairs, placing the Prime Minister in a difficult predicament. This was met, after consideration at the weekend, by acceptance of the resignations of Lord Swinton and Lord Winterton, and the reconstruction .of the Ministry on the lines already mentioned. Lord Swinton, who will be remembered better under his name as a Commoner, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, stated in his letter of resignation that he -was' content to leave judgment of his work at the Air Ministry until a later date in the light of fuller luiowledge. The Prime Minister, in his reply accepting the resignation, paid a tribute to Lord. Swiriton's business ability, and complete devotion of time and thought to the task of expanding the Air Force at an accelerated rate. ' The difficulty with the expansion programme of the Air Force was the conversion of peace-time methods ■. to meet .the exigencies of the international unrest prevalent for some time. It appears from the observations of technical journals devoted to aviation, like "flight," that production has not been proceeding as fast as had been hoped or as the occasion demanded.' Since the end of the War the mass production of aeroplanes in Britain has never been undertaken, partly because* there was no demand up to a year or two ago and parity because design had ng£ been standardised in such a

way that the methods of mass production could be introduced. A whole new industry, already in existence in Germany, had to be created in Britain, and'. the task, with shortages of skilled labour and materials, heeded more time than the uncertainty of the international situation, could apparently spare.The Ministers in charge have accordingly had to suffer. At the same time the Cabinet team seems to have been materially, strengthened by the changes. The new Air Minister (Sir Kingsleyi Wood) comes to his formidable task with a high reputttion for ability and drive gained as, first, _ Postmaster-General and then Minister of Health. It may be thajt he will be as great a success in his new post as Mr. Hore-Belisha seems to be in his as Minister of War.'' The Dominions will'miss Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, who has been an admirable Secretary in an Empire sphere which he understands by personal experience. He will have plenty of scope for his ability in the Colonial Office, which has charge of j.such knotty problems as the Palestine Mandate, the new Secretary for the Dominions, Lord Stanley, has done well in the positions he has already occupied and may be trusted to carry on the good work initiated by'his predecessor in relations with the Dominions. Mr. Walter Elliot, who was formerly known when Minister o,f , Agriculture for the schemes designed to assist British ■farming, should find room for his talents in the Ministry of Health. The Government generally should be strengthened by the changes in the Ministerial team.