A CABINET MINISTER'S DAY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 106, 3 May 1909, Page 6

A CABINET MINISTER'S DAY.

HIS WORK AxVD DUTIES

Not only a clear but a strong constitution is needed to keep pace with the multitudinous cares and worries attached to the office of a Cabinet Minister. His.post is indeed no sinecure, and he well earns the £40 or £100 per week which "the country paj^s him for his services.

Different men, of course, have different methods, and it is a long time since the Cabinet possessed such an unconventional and strenuous figure as Mr John Burns. While, however, each member may be said to have his special ways of working and gathering information, the majority adopt a certain routine each day during the session.

THE MORNING RECREATION

It is said that Mr Balfour invariably breakfasts at twelve. Mr Asquith, Mr Haldane, Mr Winston Churchill, and Mr Herbert Gladstone, however, are often to be seen riding

or driving in the Row before that hour. As a matter of fact, the majority of the. Cabinet are generally up and doing about 8.30 or nine o'clock, and after breakfast go for an hour's walk or take some other form of exercise. Mr Chamberlain, according to Mr G. W. E. Russell, always hetd fast to the belief that when a man has walked upstairs to- bed he had made as much demand on his physical energies as is good for him. By twelve o'clock the Cabinet- Minister is usually hard at work, either at the House or his room at the Government Offices in Whitehall. Prior to this, however, his private secretary has scanned the corespondence, and is thus able to immediately lay before his chief, the letters calling for the latter's personal attention. Mr Russell in his "Collections and Recollections," says that much of a Minister's comfort and success depends upon his private secretary, who ' supplies his chief with official information, hunts up the necessary references, writes his letters, and interviews his bores."

AT THE HOUSE

After the day's official papers have been dealt with and answers to questions about which other members of the House have given notice have been settled, it is probably time to go to a conference on some Bill with, which the Minister's office is concerned. Then a deputation may have to be received or a Cabinet meeting at 10, Bowling Street, attended, and the Minister is lucky if he can eat his luncheon in comfort before the sitting of the House at three o clock. Questions are asked and answered, after which the Minister, if in charge of the Bill before the House, must spend the remainder of the day in conflict with the Opposition. Or, li not concerned with the business, he may attend a Levee or Drawing Room, or deal with the papers in his despatch boxes, which must be read, minuted, and returned to the office as soon as possible.

THE SOCIAL ROUND

During this work he may be interrupted half-a-dozen times or more by the division bell, and, as a list is sent round every Monday morning showing in how many divisions each Minister has voted, it behoves him not to neglect the call of the bell unless he has "paired." Dinner-parties with colleagues once or twice a week, a full-dress dinner with the Speaker during the Session, and. other important social functions which 'he is called upon to attend occupy still more of the busy Minister's time, not to mention the public meetings which he is expected to address. Seldom indeed does the Minister reach his couch before midnight or early morning. He considers himself very lucky if he is able to get away for a .week-end after a couple of hours' work on Saturday morning.