POLITICAL SCENE IN BRITAIN

Southland Times, Issue 23848, 20 June 1939, Page 7

POLITICAL SCENE IN BRITAIN

CHANGES IN CABINET POSSIBLE GENERAL ELECTION MAY BE HELD IN AUTUMN . •LONDON, June 10. The retirement of the Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) m the autumn, the establishment of a * shadow Cabinet," changes in the Cabinet and a General Election in the autumn are being widely discussed. Undoubtedly the immediate reason for the revival of these more or less familiar topics is reflection on a leading article in The Times about tired Ministers." Political circles, which do not expect any real development until the King returns, support the contentions of The Times, that the parrot-cry, “Broaden the basis of Government,” too often means a mere haphazard assemblage of well-known names from the public life of the past, representing profoundly divergent opinions on administration, politics, and strategy, and it takes no account of the competence of such a body to work together as a team. The belief of The Times is that a greater imagination and more frequent experiments are needed in trying out aU possibilities, whether they are already in Parliament or outside. . It is pointed out that Mr Chamberlain could win applause by moving in the same direction as when he appointed Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence, by taking into the Cabinet men with great administrative ability but no ministerial experience to assist Ministers in discharging part of their heavy responsibilities.

“SHADOW From this suggestion is growing the idea that Mr Chamberlain may even now envisage a “shadow Cabinet—the creation of a group of capable, tried and proved ministerial apprentices against the time when he leaves the political field and someone else chooses future Cabinets. ■ The Times draws attention to tne quickened pace of public life, and says: “How untrue it is to say that while British Ministers take their week-ends in the country, the dictators take countries at the week-end. The very strength of the Governments majority increases the pressure, because there is no prospect of those periodic spells in Opposition which have been the salvation of statesmen in the past. “Several Cabinet Ministers know in their own hearts that they would be more efficient for a rest, but that is not to say that the best of them, who are also the hardest worked, can possibly be allowed to rest. Now that would be.sheer disaster and it would create a deplorable impression abroad if Ministers were to break down. , “It should be recognized that retirement is an act of virtue, not of suicide. Let the process of trial and error go on. Whatever may be thought about Mr Chamberlain and Lord Halifax, it is a patent fact that not every tried Minister is indispensable.”