SECRETARY OF CABINET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23515, 1 June 1938, Page 10

SECRETARY OF CABINET

SIR MAURICE HANKEY RETIREMENT ANNOUNCED • LONDON, May 31. It is announced that Sir Maurice Hankey has relinquished the Secretaryship of the British Cabinet.

Sir Maurice will become a director of the Suez Canal Company on August 1, succeeding Sir John Davies, who has held that position since 1922. Sir Maurice Hankey’s association with the British Cabinet extends from 1916, when he was appointed Secretary of the War Cabinet. At the conclusion of the war he continued in office, his official appointment as Secretary of the Cabinet dating from 1919. In addition, he has held office as Secretary, of the Committee for Imperial Defence since 1912 and as Clerk to the Pnvy Council since 1923. The third son of Mr Robert Alers Hankey, of South Australia and of Brighton, Sir Maurice was born on April 1, 1877. Educated at Rugby, he joined the Royal Marine Artillery in 1895, and he served in H.M.S. Ramillies from 1899 to 1901. In 1902 he was attached to the Naval Intelligence Department, retiring from that branch of the service in 1906. He was, appointed assistant secretary to the Committee for Imperial Defence in 1908, and four years later he assumed the secretaryship of that body, a position he has held ever since. In 1916 Sir Maurice was appointed Secretary of the War Cabinet, and on the creation of the Imperial War Cabinet in 1917 he continued in office. In 1934 Sir Maurice visited Australia and New Zealand to confer with local military and naval authorities in regard to co-ordination in Imperial defence. Sir Maurice has been intimately connected with Imperial affairs, and he was Secretary-general to the Imperial Conferences in 1921, 1923, 1926, 1930 and 1937. In addition, he has played a prominent part in various international conferences at which Britain has been represented since the war. He was British secretary at the Peace Conference (1919), Washington Conference (1921), Genoa Conference (1922),' and the London International Conference on Reparations (1924), and secretary-general of The Hague Conference (1929-30), London Naval Conference (1930), and Lausanne Conference (1932). In 1903 Sir Maurice married Miss Adeline de Smidt, daughter of Mr A. de Smidt, formerly surveyorgeneral of the Cape Colony, and there are three sons and one daughter. He was created G.C.B. in 1919, G.C.M.G. in 1929, and G.C.V.O. in 1934.