CABINET CHANGES

Evening Star, Issue 23179, 31 January 1939, Page 9

CABINET CHANGES

LORD CHATFIELD’S NEW POST OUTSTANDING REPUTATION AS FIRST SEA LORD (British Official Wireless.) Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, January 30. (Received January 31, at 11 a.m.) Parliament reassembles to-morrow, when there will be a debate on foreign affairs. The differences of opinion that may arise will not, however, be forced to a division.

There was a meeting to-day of the Cabinet Committee, which was attended by Mr Chamberlain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Colonial

Secretary, the President of the Board of Trade, the President of the Board of Education, and the new Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, as well as his successor at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Their Majesties are returning on Wednesday from Sandringham, and the King will hold a Privy Council on Thursday ,at which it is expected the Ministers affected by the recent Cabinet changes will exchange their seals of office.

The chief interest in the Cabinet changes centres in the appointment of Lord Chatfield as Minister of Defence and Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith as Minister of Agriculture. Lord Chatfield, who is at present in India (where he has just completed his work as chairman of the Committee on Indian Defence), is expected to return to London at the end of the week. The newspapers recall that he won an outstanding reputation as First Sea Lord, and ‘ The Times’ remarks that the fact that he presided, with universal approval, over the committee of the chiefs of staffs of the three services fits him most obviously to co-ordinate them now.

Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith’s appointment has aroused special interest, as he is an ex-president of the National Farmers’ Union, where he was active in criticisms of the Government’s agricultural policy. Interviewed last night, he said ho believed that agriculture could, and would, be placed on a sound and prosperous footing.

MR HUDSON'S OFFER

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, January 30. (Received January 31, at 11 a.m.)

Mr R. S. Hudson (Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department) called on Mr Chamberlain, and it is understood, in view of Lord Strathcona’s resignation, with whom his name had been associated in recent Press reports of representations by junior Ministers to the Prime Minister on the progress of rearmament, Mr Hudson offered to place his resignation in Mr Chamberlain’s hands. Mr Chamberlain saw no reason to accept the offer and asked Mr Hudson to continue in the Government. Accordingly Mr Hudson will remain at the Department of Overseas Trade,