NEW FIRST LORD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23181, 29 October 1938, Page 13

NEW FIRST LORD

BRITISH ADMIRALTY EARL STANHOPE CHOSEN WIDE CHANGES LIKELY CABINET RECONSTRUCTION By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received October 28, 11.50 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 28 The President of the Board of Education, Earl Stanhope, has been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, and takes over the post from which Mr. A. Duff Cooper resigned after the Czechoslovakian crisis.

EARL STANHOPE Earl de la Warr, Lord Privy Seal, will take Earl Stanhope's place as President of the Board of Education. It is understood that Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald will continue to combine the offices of Secretary of State for the Dominions and for the Colonies. The Times says the appointments are only a comparatively minor part of the impending reconstruction of the Government. The Daily Mail calls them "merely preliminary shuffles," adding that Mr. Chamberlain intends to broaden the Cabinet by way of enabling a bigger impulse to be given rearmament and other measures in which famous business men may be invited to assist, but he first proposes to make a statement to Parliament outlining his security plans and probably appealing for national unity. The Minister of Health, Mr. Walter Elliot, speaking at Crayford, hinted that Britain's rearmament needs might entail cuts in social services such as housing, health and pensions. "We should do 60 with great regret, because we should be hindering things we want to preserve," said Mr. Elliot.

Earl Stanhope, who is 58 years of age, was chairman of the Joint Substitution Board from" 1923 to 1924, after which he was Civil Lord of the Admiralty for a period of five years. For a short time in 1931 he was Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty. Lord Stanhope was next appointed Parliamentary Under - Secretary of State for War, a position he occupied until 1934, when he was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in succession to Mr. Anthony Eden, who had been made Lord Privy

Seal. In 1936 Lord Stanhope was appointed First Commissioner of works and in May of last year became President of the Board of Education. Earl de la Warr, who is chairman of the National Labour Party, was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War from 1929 to 1930, and for the next five years served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture. Between 1935 and 1936 he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. In May last year he was appointed Lord Privy Seal.