SECRETARY FOR INDIA

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11163, 20 March 1922, Page 6

SECRETARY FOR INDIA

MONTAGU’S SUCGESSOR VISGOTJNT PEEL APPOINTED TO THE POSITION. WHY LORD DERBY REFUSED. By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received March 19, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, March 18. Viscount Peel succeeds Mr Montagu as Secretary of State for India. Lord Derby, addressing the Junior Carlton Chib, said he had declined the offer of the Secretaryship for India because he believed he could be of more service to his party and country outside the Government than inside. He had not the slightest doubt he would be able to support the programme which Mr Chamberlain promised to put before the Conservatives prior to the next election. He intended to give unswerging loyalty and unstinted energy to support the Conservative leaders, whether inside or outside Cabinet. Tho Right Hon. Stanley Baldwin, M.P., urged the Conservatives to hold together so that when the election comes they could fling the whole weight of their influence into the same scale. Viscount William Robert Wellesley Peel has been Under-Secretary of State for War since 1919. He is ' a lawyer by profession, and has held many civic offices. He was colonel of the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, and during the GraecoTurkish war -he acted as correspondent for the “Daily Telegraph.”