THE POLITICAL SITUATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17713, 26 August 1919, Page 6

THE POLITICAL SITUATION

'ALLOTMENT OF PORTFOU.O3, MR RUSSELL RESIGNS. (Pμ Ukitbd Pasea Assootattoh.) WELLINGTON, August 25. I Following on the resignations of Liberal ; • Ministers, the temporary allotment of portfolios is now complete Sir F. D. Bell takes Public Health in the meantime. Tho reason that Sir Jamea Allen is taking only minor portfolios w that Defence, including the administration of Samoa, 13 sufficient to keep him very busy. ' The Hon G. W. Russell to-day tendered , his resignation as a member of tho National ; Government.

(Fhom Oob Own Cobkispohdbkt.) ! WELLINGTON, August 25. ;... A few more announcements can now bo made as to the allocation of the portfolios ! formerly, held by the Ministers who have .. gone out of the Government. Sir William Fraser is to be PostmasterI general until some other arrangement c?ji ! bo made. Sir James Alleri finds Defence such a heavy xbad to. carry that ho canjot I take any of tho big portfolios. Ho is to take three small denarmients— Pensions, national Provideit Fund, and Advertising—which are so small that they will entail little, if any, extra work. j The present strength of tho Cabinet is Bix Ministers—a nimber too small to permit of the work of the departments being carried on easily. Before many days ap- :* pointmenta will be mada to the Ministry to bring it up to a strength probably of I eight or 10. Theso appointments may not be made for some days, probably not until the end_ jf this week or early next week. , Nothing seems to have been deended ; ' about the retirement of present Ministers from the Cabinet except that two of them are likely to go. It is possible that the •\ Prime Minister wiQ prefer to keep these «yperienced administrators with him through the session, but there is no definite information that this is hie final decision. . ' Meetings of the Government party and the Opposition party are to be held on Wednesday. The OpposMon caucus is to be held early in the day, and the Government members will meet in the afternoon. ■ These meetings should both be quite important. The followers of Sir Joiseph I *Ward will possibly want to say something about the course that is to be followed by, tho party during the session. More interest will be felt in the outcome of the Government caucus. It is well known that the chief cause of the threatened defection of a large body of tho followers of Mr Massey some months ago was alleged to be due to dissatisfaction with certain members of the Ministry on their side of the Cabinet. These Ministers are still there, and if the membera say in caucus eome of the things- that have been said_ by them many times outside the meeting should be interesting. ' If these members persist in their intentions as -expressed some months ago they will ■ press for an immediate reconstruction of the Cabinet, involving the resignation of some of the present Ministers. Will Sir Joseph Ward move a no-con-fidence motion? This is the question probaby most discussed by the members of Parliament already in Wellington at present. When the announcement was first made that the Opposition section would retire from the National Government it - was almost taken for granted that Sir Joseph Ward would do so. It is suggested now that instead of doing this he may announce his intention to help the Government to get through the necessary legislation, and to postpone active hostili- • unt rii candidates are at tho hustings. There are one or two strong reasons why the latter course may be decided upon The first is that Sir Joseph Ward could not get such a motion through without the • support of the Labour group, and it may ■ not suit his plans to be allied too closely w «k them - It is doubtful, moreover, whether he would be sent for in the event ot, the defeat of the Government under such circumstances. Another reason is that some members of his party are not reliable just now. Probably they would not desert their leader and go over to Mr Massey, but they might be so much opposed to the resumption of party warfare ■ in the conditions as they will be in this session that they might absent themselves from the critical division. If Sir Joseph Ward does decide to go on with a noconfidence motion much time will be lost iWbioh will be required for the business of the session. If his motion should be carried - and a. dissolution were to- follow there -would bo virtually no business session at aU, and the elections would havj to be taken within a few weeks. But this is not regarded as tho likely course of events. The eession must be limited in duration to about two months. Long before then members will be getting anxious to get out on the platform, and it will not be possible to keep • v.' L " a^nesa - If much time is spent in the discussion of a no-confidence motion there may be so little time left for business that is important that it may seem advisable to postpone the elections until March „ in order that the session may be continued ■- long enough to get important legislation through. That does not at present seem but it is one of the remote possibfliteis to be considered.