NEW LEADER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24261, 1 April 1940, Page 6

NEW LEADER

MR FRASER FAVOURED OPPOSITION FROM LEFT CABINET CHANGES NOT UNLIKELY (From Our Special Reporter) WELLINGTON, Mar. 31. The coming week promises from a political point of view to be one of the most interesting since Labour was first elected to power in 1935. The appointment of a new Prime Minister to succeed Mr Savage and the composition of the Cabinet he will have with him are matters on which an early decision will have to be made, and conjecture is rife as to the outcome of the next few days’ deliberations.

A Government caucus meeting Is likely to be held early in the week after the return of Ministers from Auckland. Here, the selection of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet will be made. Opinions as to what will happen vary as greatly as individual desires, for, while some believe that there will be a strong swing to the Left in the party, others are convinced that Mr Fraser will become Prime Minister, perhaps not unopposed, and that he will have a Cabinet almost identical with the present one. As soon as Mr Fraser returns to Wellington to-morrow he will no doubt be called on by his Excellency the Governor-General, as the senior Minister, to form a Cabinet. But after that has been done, as a temporary measure only, it will remain for the party to decide on its leader and its executive. This will be done at a caucus to be held here early in the week. General opinion favours Mr Fraser as Prime Minister, although the Left Wing will no doubt also have its nominee. Members of the latter section of the party seem inclined to favour their chances less now than they did a few days ago; but, ail the same, while their hope of securing the leadership is remote, it would not be surprising to see them capture one, or possibly two. Cabinet posts.