LABOUR CABINET ANNOUNCED

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1929, Page 9

LABOUR CABINET ANNOUNCED

MR. RAMSAY MACDONALD’S MINISTRY MR. SYDNEY WEBB DOMINION AFFAIRS AN EX-LIBERAL ATTORNEY-GENERAL British Official Wireless. Rugby, June 7. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Cabinet is as follows:— Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.—Rt. Hon. J. Ramsay MacDonald. Chancellor of the Exchequer.—Rt. Hon. Philip Snowden. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.—Rt. Hon. Arthur Henderson. . t Lord Privy Seal. —Rt. Hon. J. H. Thomas. Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs and Colonies—Rt. Hon. Sidney Webb. Lord Chancellor.—Sir John Sankey. Lord President of the Council.—Lord Parmoor. Secretary of State for Home Affairs.—Rt. Hon. J. R. Clynes. Secretary of State for India.—Captain Wedgwood Benn. Secretary of State for War. —Rt. Hon. Thomas Shaw. Secretary of State for Air.—Lord Thomson. Minister of Health.—Mr. A. Greenwood. Minister of Labour.—Miss M. Bondfield. Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.—Rt. Hon. N. E. Buxton. President, Board of Education.—Sir C. P. Trevelyan. President, Board of Trade.—Rt. Hon. W. Graham. First Lord of Admiralty.—Mr. A. V. Alexander. Secretary of State for Scotland.—Rt. Hon. W. Adamson. First Commissioner of Works.—Mr. George Lansbury.

All the above appointments carry with them seats in the Cabinet. Other Ministerial posts announced are: —

Chancellor of Duchy of Lancaster.—Sir Oswald Mosley. Attorney-General.—Mi*. W. A. Jowitt, K.C. Solicitor-General.—Mr. W. B. Melville, K.C. Minister of Pensions. —Rt. Hon. F. O. Roberts. Minister of Transport.—Mr. Herbert Morrison. Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Scotland.—Mr. T. Johnston Postmaster-General.—Professor H. B. Lees Smith * Paymaster-General.—Lord Arnold (without pay).

MR. W. A. JOWITT’S SURPRISE

LABOUR MOVEMENT EMBRACED. SNAPSHOTS OF NEW CABINET. (British Official Wireless). Rugby, Juno 7. Considerable surprise has been created in political circles by the statement that Mr, Jowitt, ■ the eminent King’s Counsel, who is a Libera], has been offered the post of Attorney-General in Mr. MacDonald’s Ministry. Mr. Jowitt’s position is somewhat peculiar. He wo:i as a Liberal one of the two seats at Preston, the other seat be-, ing won by Mr. Tom Shaw (Labour). It is claimed that Mr, Jowitt was elected by the ;id of the Labour votes. The post is one of very great importance and involves almost invariably close and confidential relations with th,e„Government. It can hardly be regarded as simply a legal office. In the last Government, for instance, Sir Douglas Hogg, as Att wney-General, led the House of Commons on most important occasions, such as the long debates on the Trade Disputes Act, and he even deputised for the Prime Minister, The Scottish legal Cabinet appointments are still under consideration. It is announced that the reason why the name of Sir Henry Slesser, who was Solicitor-General in the last Labour Government, does not appear in the list is that other services have been assigned to him which will be made known later, while it is pointed out that the Right Hon. Vernon Hartshorn, who was Postmaster-General in the previous Labour administration, is temporarily engaged on the Indian Statutory Commission. Lord Arnold, the unpaid PaymasterGeneral in the new Government, has accepted a position with nominal duties in order to be free for work in the House of Lords and in other ways. Sir Oswald Mosley and Mr. George Lansbury, it is announced, will also have other duties imposed upon them in connection with schemes for national reconstruction which are being prepared. PREVIOUS CABINET EXPERIENCE. Although several Ministers. have ■ changed to other departments, 13 out of the 19 members of the new . Cabinet were members of the 1924 Labour Cabinet. In his earlier administration Mr. MacDonald himself combined the duties of Foreign Secretary (now undertaken by Mr. Henderson) with those of Primo Minister and First Lord of the Treasury. With the appointment of Miss Margaret Bondfield as Minister of Labour, a woman attains Cabinet rank for the first time. Mr. Snowden was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the first Labour Government. He first entered Parliament in 1906. Ho entered the Civil Service as a youth, afterwards'taking up Journalism, and has written and lectured extensively on social and financial questions, He was a Privy Councillor in 1924.

Mr. Henderson was Homo Secretary m the first Labour Government, Ho first entered Parliament in 1903. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1915, was president of the Board of Education in 1915, Paymaster-General and Labour adviser to.Ahe Government in 1910, went on a Government mission to Russia in the following year, and was a member of the War Cabinet without portfolio. He has been presi-

dent of the Labour and Socialist International since 1926.

Air. Thomas was Colonial Secretary in the first Labour Government. He has been Labour member of Parliament for Derby since 1910, and for many years general secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen. He Was made a Privy Councillor in 1917. It is understood that he will now devote himself mainly to the unemployment problem, with Mr. Lansbury and Sir Oswald Mosley as his principal lieutenants. Mr. Sidney Webb was made a Privy Councillor in 1924. He has been a member of Parliament since 1922. Recently he notified his intention of retiring from Parliamentary life. He is an authority upon economics, and has printed voluminously upon them in col-laboration.-with his wife, Beatrice Webb. LORD PARMOOR’S APPOINTMENT. Lord Parmoor was Lord President of the Council in the first Labour Government and represented Britain at the League of Nations, He was a provisional King’s Counsel, and was specially appointed a judicial member of the Privy Council in 1914, in which year he was created a peer. He 'first entered Parliament, as a Conservative, in 1895. He has been leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords. Lord Justice Sankey has been a Lord Justice of Appeal since last year. He was chairman of the Coal Industry Commission in 1919. Mr. Clynes was Lord Privy Seal and Deputy-Leadei’ of the House of Commons in the first Labour Government. He first entered Parliament in 1906. During the war he was the first Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Food, and afterwards Food Control--ler. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1918. Captain Wedgewood Ben had a brilliant career as an airman during the war, receiving the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Flying Cross, as well as the Legion of Honour, the Croix de Guerre, the Italian Bronze Valour Medal, the Italian War Cross, and other decorations for gallantry in the Near East and the Mediterranean. He entered the House of Commons as a Liberal in 1906, and held several posts, including that of Junior Lord of the Treasury, in the pre-war Liberal administration. lie joined the Labour Party in 1927. Mr. Shaw was Labour Minister in the first Labour Government, and has been a member of the House of Commons since 1918, and a Privy Councillor since 1924. For some time he was joint secretary of the Labour and Socialist International. Lord Thomson returns to the post lie held in the first Labour administration. He was a regular Army officer, serving in the South African and Great Wars. He was attached to the Supreme War Council in 1918, retiring with the honorary rank of Brigadier-General in the following year. Mr. Greenwood has been a member of Parliament and is interested particularly in health and other social questions. FIRST WOMAN MINISTER. Miss Margaret Bondfield was Parliamentary Secretary to the Labour Ministry in the last Labour Government. She has been actively engaged in women’s trade union movements. She was Labour adviser to the Labour Convention at Washington in 1919, and subsequently at Geneva under the League of Nations. Mr, Buxton entered Parliament in 1910 as a Liberal. He joined the Labour

Party in 1922 and was Minister of Agriculture in the first Labour Government. Ho is a member of a well-known family of East England landowners. Sir Charles Trevelyan is the son of the noted historian, Sir George Trevelyan. He returns to the post he held in the earlier Labour Government. He first entered Parliament as a Liberal, and was before the war Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education. He joined tho Labour Party after the war. Mr. Graham was Financial Secretary to the Treasury in the last Labour Government. He entered Parliament in 1918 and was made a Privy Councillor in 1924. He has taken a leading part in financial legislation, and written extensively on social, industrial and economic questions. a. Mr. Alexander was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in the earlier Labour Ministry. He has been closely identified with the co-operative movement. He was an Army officer during the war. Mr. Adamson has been a member of Parliament since 1910 and was a miners’ union leader. He held the same post in the first Labour Government. Mr. Lansbury first entered Parliament in 1010. He was prominently identified with the woman’s suffrage movement, and was formerly editor of the Daily Herald and is now editor of the Labour Weekly, He is prominently identified with tho Independent Labour Party and is expected to act as “assist ant Minister for employment” to Mr. Thomas. Among the new Ministers who are not members of the Cabinet is Mr. Roberts, who was Minister of Pensions in the first Labour Government. He entered Parliament in 1918 and was made a Privy Councillor in 1924. Mr. Jowitt has been a Liberal member of Parliament since 1922.- He is a prominent King’s Counsel with one of the largest practices at the Bar. His acceptance of a post in the Labour administration is an interesting development. MR. JOWITT’S POSITION. Mr. Jowitt, in a letter to Mr. MacDonald, dated June 5, said: “Everyone must regard your task with passive sympathy, and those, like myself, hitherto Radicals, must consider whether we ought not to support your party as the only effective instrument to -carry through the desired reforms. I will willingly enroll under your banner.” Mr. MacDonald replied, pointing out that it has become a question of choosing which of two parties one must serve. He cordially welcomed Mr. Jowitt. The political correspondent of the Daily Herald says that Mr. Jowitt’s action came as a bombshell to Liberals elsewhere. The Liberal executive meejs to-night to consider the position. No recent example can be recalled where a member of the House of Commons crossed the floor within a week of election. Mr. Jowitt offered to resign the Preston seat and contest it as a Labour candidate, but it is understood he will not be asked to resign if he undertakes to stand as a Labour candidate at the next election and not to contest the Preston seat again. He has given this undertaking. The Liberals had no knowledge that Mr. Jowitt was likely to become a member of the Labour Ministry. One of the most influential of the Labour members said: “At least seven or eight more Liberals are sure to come over'to the side of moderate Labour during the next few months. Our next job is put the Liberals out of existence, based on the idea that the Liberals must either come with us or go with tho Conservatives.” His Majesty dressed and received the ex-Cabinet members in the audience chamber with full ceremonial. Mr. Webb’s lack of a Parliamentary seat will be overcome by his elevation to the peerage. Small attention was given to the Empire in the Labour Party's speeches. Mr. Webb's selection does not betoken a vigorous Empire policy, but his friends predict that ho will not be found wanting in Imperial enthusiasm and vision. NO FANTASTIC SCHEMES. Mr. Thomas declared to-night: “We will not attempt fantastic schemes, but the development of the Empire, with its immense potentialities, is included In my list. No practical scheme in any part of the Empire will be excluded.” Lord Justice Sankey will, it is expected, be raised to the peerage. The Liberal newspapers admit Mr. Jowitt did not fight Labour, but co-operat-ed with them. He and Mr. Shaw were elected in a four-cornered fight against two Conservatives by a combined Liberal and Labour vote.

One of the first matters for Mr. MacDonald to tackle concerning the Dominions Office is the Imperial conference. It is understood Labour is particularly anxious to have discussions with the Dominions’ Premiers, as the policy will naturally undergo certain changes, though not necessarily <sf a drastic nature. An Imperial conference will definitely be called for 1930 at the earliest moment that can be arranged to fit in with the Labour programme. The Cabinet handed over the seals to His Majesty at Windsor at 4 o’clock and took formal leave.

Mr. Baldwin intends to revive the Conservative “Shadow” Cabinet from which there wore such good results in 1924. The ex-Ministers will meet periodically at the party headquarters in St. Stephen’s Chambers, where Mr. Baldwin will have an office. The Liberal leaders assembled at Lord Reading's house and discussed tho policy to be recommended to the Liberal Parliamentary Party, which has been summoned for June 13 to hear a statement from Mr. Lloyd George. It is believed the leaders have decided to table an amendment to the King’s Speech demanding an inquiry into electoral reform.

The Daily Telegraph predicts the resignation honours will include a peerage for Sir William Joynson-Hicks, Home Secretary. Mr. MacDonald's Cabinet-making followed the expected lines, with one noteworthy surprise, so complete that the political tipsters’ lists during the whole week left the Dominion office blank.

lt was known that Mr. J. 11. Thomas wanted something bigger than his old office; indeed, he aspired to the Foreign Office, but when he yielded to Mr. MacDonald’s blandishment, that the. big job of unemployment wanted a big man with vision and initiative, it caused a recasting of political guessing, with no one in the offing to fill the Dominions blank. There was no breath of suggestion that Mr. Sidney M ebb would be selected.