CABINET CHANGES IN SPAIN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20731, 19 May 1937, Page 9

CABINET CHANGES IN SPAIN

MORE MODERATE IN TONE

COMMUNISTS PLAYING NEW ROLE WIDER SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITY United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received May 18, 8.15 p.m.) VALENCIA, May 18. Senor Juan Negrin has formed a Cabinet, comprising three Socialists, two Left Republicans, one Basque Nationalist, one Catalan. The Left Republican Senor Caballero former Prime Minister, has not been included. Personnel of Cabinet The new Cabinet, which represents all the Popular Front parties, except the Anarchists, numbers nine, compared with Senor Caballero's fifteen: Senor Negrin (So .ialist) Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. Senor Giral (Left Republican), Foreign Affairs. Senor Prieto (Socialist), Defence. Senor Irujo (Basque Nationalist), Justice. Senor Zugagoltia (Socialist), Interior. Senor Hernandez (Communist), Education and Health.

Senor Uribe ‘(Communist) Agriculture.

Senor Ruis (Republican Union), Public Works and Transport. Senor Aiguade (Catalan Left Republican) Labour and Social Welfare. The key post is Senor Prietos. He was Minister for Air and Marine in the last Cabinet, and now also controls the War Office. Conduct of the War The conduct of the war will henceforth be in the hands of the Cabinet. The Superior War Council has suppressed the general staff, which has been reformed and given greater scope. COMMUNISTS’ BIG PART SUPPORT OF LAW AND ORDER United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright VALENCIA, May 17. The emergence of the Communists as champions of law and order is the most curious feature of the Cabinet crisis, which President Azana is still seeking to solve. The Communists supported the Bourgeois Left Republican Parties, whose sympathies they won by their insistence on winning the civil war, curbing the activities of the Anarchists, and the championship of expropriation of small shopkeepers and employers. The crisis Is primarily a move towards a more moderate Government and the re-establishing of pre-civil war Popular Front Government, to which it is believed the Democratic Western Powers are sympathetic. The Communists mistrust Senor Caballero, as being too partial to the Anarchists.

The Minister of Finance, Senor Negrin (Socialist) has been asked to form a Cabinet.