BRITISH CABINET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 9

BRITISH CABINET

MR BALDWIN'S RETIREMENT SEVERAL CHANGES ANNOUNCED SIR JOHN SIMON CHANCELLOR (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, May 28. Mr Baldwin has been appointed Knight of the Garter. The following Cabinet changes have been announced: — Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.—Mr Neville Chamberlain. Lord President.—Viscount Halifax. Chancellor of the Exchequer.—Sir John Simon. Home Secretary. Sir Samuel Hoare. Lord Privy Seal.—Earl de la Warr. Secretary for State for War.—Mr L. Hore-Belisha President of the Board of Trade.— Mr Oliver Stanley. First Lord of the Admiralty.—Mr A. Duff-Cooper. Minister of Education.—Earl StanMinister of Transport.—Dr Burgm. Commissioner of Works (no Cabinet rank).—Sir Philip Sassoon. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan-caster.—-Earl Winterton. The remaining posts are unchanged. THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY APPOINTMENT OF LEADER (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, May 28. A meeting of the Conservative Party to appoint Mr Neville Chamberlain to succeed Mr Baldwin as leader will be held on Monday. Lord Halifax will preside, and it is understood that Mr Baldwin will not be present. Mr and Mrs Baldwin are leaving London to-day to spend a few weeks at Chequers while their new London home is being prepared for occupation. Meanwhile the new Prime Minister will move into No. 10 Downing street. The formalities in connection with the resignation took place before 10 o'clock this morning, when Mr Baldwin was received by the King in his Majesty's private • apartments at Buckingham Palace. Mr Baldwin, having formally intimated the wish to be relieved of office, and his resignation having been accepted, the King, on the advice of the retiring Prime Minister, sent for Mr Neville Chamberlain. He arrived at the Palace at about 11 o'clock, and at once was received in audience by his Majesty, who asked him to form a Government.

Mr Chamberlain accepted the invitation.

The resignations of all the members of the Government were, it was understood, already in possession of Mr Chamberlain. In addition to seven by-elections now pending, three seats in the House of Commons become vacant owing to the elevation to the. House of Lords of members of Parliament announced in the honours list. The seats are those at present held by Mr Baldwin in the Bewdley Division, Worcestershire, Sir J. C. Davidson (Nationalist Conservative), in the Hemel Hempstead Division, Hertfordshire, and Mr Walter Runciman. ' . . , Mr Neville Chamberlain's Cabinet will be composed of 21 membersone fewer than Mr Baldwin's Ministers who continue in the same offices are the Lord Chancellor (Viscount Hailsham), the Foreign Secretary (Mr Eden), the Dominions Secretary (Mr Malcolm MacDohald), the Secretary for India and Burma (Lord Zetland), the Colonial Secretary (Mr Ormsby Gore), the Minister for Co-ordination of Defence (Sir Thomas Inskip), the Air Secretary (Viscount Swinton), the Secretary for Scotland (Mr Walter .Elliot), the Minister of Agriculture (Mr W. S. Morrison), the Minister of Health (Sir Kingsley Wood) and the Minister of Labour (Mr Ernest Brown). The Cabinet is composed of 15 Conservatives, 4 Liberal Nationals, and 2 National Labour members. The Ministers affected by the changes in Cabinet were received by the King at a Privy Council meeting. They exchanged seals and took the oaths.

Mr Savage and the Canadian Minister of Justice (Mr Lapointe) attended the Council meeting. • The Duke of Kent, who was made a Councillor in the honours list, was introduced into the Council. There was a considerable number of changes among junior Ministers, including the following:—Captain Euan Wallace, who led the British delegation at the Montreux Conference on the regime and capitulations of Egypt, leaves the Department of Overseas Trade to become Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, and is succeeded by Mr R. S. Hudson, former Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, a position which is taken by a newcomer to Ministerial ranks, Mr R. H. Bernays, a Liberal National member of Parliament. Viscount Cran borne and Lord Plymouth remain Parliamentary Under-secretaries for Foreign Affairs. The Law Officers and Scottish Law Officers remain unchanged, as also do the Postmastergeneral, the Minister of Pensions, and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and Captain Margesson continues as Chief Whip. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS TROUBLOUS DAYS.AHEAD LONDON, May 28. The Cabinet as a whole is not enthusiastically received, but Mr Chamberlain could do little else with the material available. Mr Oliver Stanley's appointment, like Sir Samuel , Hoare's and Lord de la Warr's. is obviously traceable to internal politics rather than particular fitness for the job. » Surprise is expressed that so many Cabinet changes have been made in the middle of the Imperial Conference, especially the shuffling of Ministers like Sir Samuel Hoare and Mr Duff-Cooper, who have already addressed the conference as specialists in their own particular spheres, while Mr Runciman. who only yesterday made an important speech on the economic situation disappears from the Cabinet Mr Chamberlain will assume the leadership with trouble awaiting him. Several of his influential backbenchers are tabling a motion for t ejection of the national defence tax. One Simonite Whip has already resigned as a result of the tax. Troublous days '.re ahead in the House of Commons.