BACK TO THEIR OLD JOBS

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 329, 23 January 1932, Page 26 (Supplement)

BACK TO THEIR OLD JOBS

Former Labour Ministers Hard at Work. LONDON, January 6. Happy again at their old jobs, including brewing, joinery, enginedriving and mail sorting, describes the present conditiin of many Labour Ministers and members of the House of Commons who lost their seats at the general election. They no longer find policemen holding up the traffic on their behalf if they happen to go towards Westminster, and they miss other privileges of the legislator, but, nevertheless they are philosophical, and generally anticipate the political whirligig to restore them to Whitehall and Westminster. On Footplate. The most romantic figure among former Ministers is the white-haired Mr H. C. Charleton, former Junior Lord of the Treasury. • With several other former members of the House of Commons he has returned to the footplate, while Mr C.

F. Sawyer has been re-employed as a goods 'train guard.

Mr S. P. Viant, who was Assistant Postmaster-General at a salary of £I2OO, is re-engaged at his old trade of carpentering, making doors and windowframes at Camberwell. He rises at 7 a.m. and arrives at the job early. He says it is a joy to use the old tools again, and that he is one of the happiest of the defeated members. Mr Ernest Thurtle, former Whip, has become a brewers’ liaison officer. He visits seventy clubs to see that they get the right beer and good service. Reading the Poets. Mr J. R. Clynes, who was Home Secretary at a salary of £SOOO, has been re-engaged by a trade union organisation. He says he is enjoying a quiet life, re-reading his favourite poets— Shelley, Masefield and Drinkwater. Mr Greenwood, former Minister for Health, has also returned to trade unionism. Mr Graham, who was president of the Board of Trade, has joined a firm of London stockbrokers as an economic adviser. Mr Jack Hayes, ex vice-chamberlain of the Royal Household and a former policeman, is contributing articles to the Police Review.

Di* Shiels, who was Under-Secretary for Colonies, is re-engaging in medical work, lecturing and writing. Many defeated members are still workless, especially miners, although out of sventy-five several have rejoined trades union officialdom.