BRITISH POLITICS

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22513, 23 November 1944, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS

THREE NEW MINISTERS MR SANDYS FOR WORKS LINK WITH NEW ZEALAND (United rress Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. LONDON, Nov. 22 The following new Ministerial appointments are announced:— Minister of Works.—Mr Duncan Sandys, who replaces Lord Portal. Minister Resident in the Middle East.—Sir Edward Grigg, in succession to the late Lord Moyne. Minister Resident in West Africa. —Captain Harold Balfour, in succession to Viscount Swinton. Under-Secretary of Air.—Mr R. A. Brabner. Joint Parliamentary Secretary to Ministry of Supply.—Mr John Wilmot. All these new appointments were made from members of the House of Commons. It is also announced that the Earl of Seltoorne is resigning as soon as arrangements can be made to wind up the Ministry of Economic Warfare, possibly by December 31. Blockade of Germany The announcement added that the Allied armed forces on the frontier of Germany are maintaining the

blockade of Germany almost entirely. Therefore the scope of the Ministry of Economic Warfare has greatly declined. The blockade of Japan will be pursued with full vigour until her final defeat, but the volume of work no longer justifies the retention of a separate Ministry, and arrangements are being made to transfer the remaining work and the necessary staff to other departments. Mr Duncan Sandys, who is 36 years of age, is a son-in-law of Mr Winston Churchill. He married Miss Diana Churchill in 1935. Mr Sandys’ mother was formerly Miss Mildred Cameron, daughter of the late Mr Duncan Cameron, of Christchurch, New Zealand. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Mr Sandys entered Parliament in 1935 as Conservative member for the Norwood division of Lambeth and has served as Financial Secretary to the War Office and Parliamentary Secretary to the Min- ! istry of Supply. Sir Edward Grigg married the Hon. Joan Dickson-Poynder, daughter of Lord Islington, a former Governor of New Zealand, He is 65 years of age. He served in the Grenadier Guards in the last war, and was military secretary to the Prince of Wales on his visit to New Zealand in 1920. He was Joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the War Office from 1940 to 1942. Captain Balfour has been Parliamentary Under-Secretary of Air since 1938. He is 47. NEW COMMANDER . BRITISH TROOPS IN EGYPT (Received Nov. 23, noon) LONDON, Nov. 22 Lieutenant-General C. W. Allfrey is taking over the command of British troops in Egypt from General Stone, says a Cairo message. The new general is already in Egypt. General Stone’s new appointment is not known yet. FEROCIOUS ATTACKS WOMAN SNIPER KILLED LONDON, Nov. 22 The ferocity of the German counter-attacks is mounting where the British Second Army holds a salient beyond Geilenkirchen. In the past 24 hours our troops have ma&e headway among sqme of the most complex defences in Europe. The British United Press correspondent east of Aachen says a woman sniper yesterday wounded a United States officer three miles south-east of Escheweiler. The officer returned the fire and killed the woman.