NEW BRITISH CABINET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 127, 31 May 1937, Page 7

NEW BRITISH CABINET

CHAMBERLAIN’S SELECTION UNEXPECTED NUMBER OF CHANGES TROUBLE LOOMS AHEAD FOR NEW PRIME MINISTER [ British Official W'reles*. J Received May 30, 5.5 p.m. RUGBY, May 2b. The Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin, M.P., resigned the office of Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury this morning, and the Rt. Hon. Neville Chamberlain, M.P., accepted His Majesty's invitation to fill that position. As his first act as Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain recommended His Majesty to confer an Earldom on Mr. Baldwin, and it was officially announced that the King had been pleased to approve that that dignity be conferred upon Mr. Baldwin on the occasion of his resignation. Mr. Baldwin’s Resignation. The formalities in connection with the resignation took place before 10 a.m., when Mr. Baldwin was received by the King in His Majesty’s private apartments at Buckingham Palace. Having formally intimated his wish to be relieved of office, and the* 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 His Majesty, who asked him to form a Government. Mr. Chamberlain accepted the invitation and kissed hands on his appointment as Prime Minister. The resignations of all the members of the Government were, it is understood, already in the possession of Mr. Chamberlain. New Ministers Sworn In In the afternoon Mr. Neville Chamberlain visited the Palace again and submitted to the King the list of the new Cabinet. The Minister affected by the changes in Cabinet were also received by the King, and at a Privy Council meeting which followed they exchanged seals, took the oaths, and kissed hands on their new- appointments. Mr. Chamberlain’s Cabinet is composed of 21 members—one less than Mr. Baldwin’s—ls Conservatives, 4 Liberal Nationals, and 2 National Labour members. The principal changes are as follows: Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury—Mr. Neville Chamberlain. Lord President of the Council—Lord Halifax. Chancellor of the Exchequer—Sir John Simon. Home Secretary—Sir Samuel Hoare. Lord Privy Seal—Earl de la Warr. Secretary for War.—Mr. L. Hore-Belisha. President of the Board of Trade.—Mr. Oliver Stanlc First Lord of the Admiralty—Mr. 0. Duff Cooper. President of the Board of Education—Earl Stanhope. Minister of Transport—Dr. E. L. Burgin. Commissioner of Works (no Cabinet Rank) —Sir Phillip Sassoon. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster—Lord Winterton. Unchanged Offices. Cabinet Ministers who continue in the same offices as before C e the Lord Chancellor (Lord Hailsham), the Foreign Sccrc- ( ry (Mr. Anthony Eden), the Dominions Secretary (Mr. Malclm MacDonald), the Secretary for India and Burma (Lord Zetland, the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Ormsby-Gore), the Minister for Co-ordination of Defence (Sir Thomas Inskip), the Air Secretary (Lord Swinton), the Secretary for Scotland (Mr. Walter Elliot), the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. W. S. Morrison), the Minister of Health (Sir Kingsley Wood), and the Minister of Labour (Mr. Ernest Brown). There are a considerable number of changes among junior Ministers, including the following:— Captain Euan Wallace, who led the British delegation at 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. R. S. Hudson, former Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, a position which is taken by a newcomer to the Ministerial ranks, Mr. R. H. Bernays, a Liberal National member of Parliament. Lord Cranborne and Lord Plymouth remain Parliamentary Under-Secretaries for Foreign Affairs. The law officers and Scottish law officers remain unchanged, as also do the Postmaster-General, the Minister of Pensions, and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Captain Margesson continues as Chief Whip. Little Enthusiasm Shown. 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 Hoare’s and Earl De La M arr’s, is obviously traceable to internal politics rather than to his particular fitness for the job. Surprise is expressed that so many Cabinet changes have been made in the middle of the Imperial Conference, especially the shuffling of Ministers like Sir Samuel Hoare and Mr. DuffCooper, who have already addressed the Conference as specialists in their own particular sphere, while Mr. Runciman, 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 baek-benehers are tabling a motion for the rejection of the national defence tax. One Simonite Whip already has resigned. Troublous days arc ahead in the House of Commons.