CABINET CHANGES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19337, 29 May 1937, Page 6

CABINET CHANGES

FORMALITIES AT PALACE AUDIENCES WITH KING NOW 21 MEMBERS FIFTEEN CONSERVATIVES (British Official Wireless.) itrnl. 12.45 p.m. RUGBY, May 28. A meeting of tho Conservative A'arty to appoint ..Mr. Neville Chamberlain to succeed Mr. Stanley Baldwin as the leader is to be held on Monday. Viscount Halifax will preside, and it is understood that Mr. Baldwin will not be present. Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin are leaving London to-day 1o spend a few weeks at Hu l Chequers, while their new London home is being prepared for occupation. .Meanwhile, tlie new Prime Minister will move in to No. 10 Downing Street. Tiie formalities in connection with the resignation of Mr. Baldwin .as Prime Minister took place before 10 o clock this morning, when Mr. Baldwin was received by the King in llis Majesty s private apartments at Buckingham Palace. Mr. Baldwin, having formally intimated 1 1 is wish to lie- relieved oi oliiee 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 was at once received in audience by llis Majesty, who asked him to iorm a Government. Mr. Chamberlain accepted the invitation and kissed the Kings hand on his appointment as Prime Minister. The resignations of all members of the Government were, it is understood, already in the possession of Mr. Chamberlain. One Minister Less Mr. Neville Chamberlain’s Cabinet is composed of 21 members, one less than Mr. Stanley Baldwin’s. The Ministers who continue in the same "offices are as follows Lord Chancellor. —Viscount Hailsham. Foreign Secretary.—Mr. Anthony Eden. Dominions Secretary. —Mr. Malcolm MacDonald. Secretary for India and Burma. —The Marquess of Zetland. Colonial Secretary.—Mr. W. G. Ormsby-Gore. Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence.—Sir Thomas Inskip. Secretary for Air.—Viscount Swinton. Secretary for Scotland. —Mr. Walter Elliot. Minister of -Agriculture.—Mr. W. S. Morrison. Minister of Health. —Sir Kingsley Wood. Minister of Labour. —Mr. Ernest Brown. The Cabinet is composed of 15 Conservatives, four Liberal-Nationals, and two National Labour members. 'I here are a considerable number of changes among the junior Ministers, ir-Muling the following:—Privy Council Meeting Captain Euan Wallace, who led the British delegation to the Montreux Conference on the regime of capitulations in Egypt, leaves the Department of Overseas Trade to become Parliamentary .Secretary to the Board of Trade, and is succeeded by Mr. B. S. Hudson, the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, a position’which is taken by a newcomer to Ministerial ranks, Mr. 11. H. Bernays, the Liberal-National member of Parliament. for Bristol North. Viscount Cranhorne and the Earl of Plymouth remain Parliamentary Undersecretaries for Foreign Affairs. The law officers- and the Scottish law officers remain unchanged, as also the Postmaster-General, the Minister of Pensions, and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Captain 11. D. Margcsson, the Conservative member for Rugby, continues as chief whip. The Ministers affected by the changes of the Cabinet, were received by the King al a Privy Council meeting. They exchanged Hie seals and took oaths on the new appointments. The New Zealand Prime Minister. Mr. M. -I. Savage, and tlm Canadian Minis! er of .Tus( ice, Mr. E. Lapointe, attended the Council mooting. The. Duke of Kent, who was made a Privy Councillor in the honours list, was introduced into the Council. Difficult Time Ahead The Cabinet as a whole is not enthusiastically received, but Mr. Chamberlain could do little else with the material available. Mr. Stanley’s appointment like Sir Samuel Heave’s and Earl Do La Warr’s, obviously is traceable to internal politics rather than particular fitness for the job. Surprise is expressed, but so many Cabinet changes were made in the middle of the Imperial Conference, especially the shuffling of Ministers like Sir Samuel lloare and Mr. Duff Cooper, who have already addressed the conference as specialists in their own particular spheres, while Mr. Walter Runeiman, 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 back benchers are tabling a motion for the rejection of the national defence tax. One Simonite whip already has resigned as a result of the tax. Troublous days are ahead in the House of Commons.