NEW BRITISH LABOUR CABINET

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 117, 2 March 1950, Page 5

NEW BRITISH LABOUR CABINET

DRASTIC CHANCES AVOIDED

“Mr Attlee’s Government reshuffle left the inner Cabinet almost unchanged, but sprang many surprises oh the lower Government levels,” says Reuter’s political correspondent. “The most spectacular appointment was Mr Shinwell’s promotion to Defence Minister. Mr Shinwell has assumed the supreme civil direction mf all Britain’s armed forces from Lord Alexander. * “Simultaneously the inner Cabinet has been widened to readmit Dr. Dalton.

“Politically more significant: than any of the 16 changes which Mr< Attlee made was the retention as Health Minister of Mr Aneurin Bevan. Before the election,, it was generally predicted that Mr Bevan's great party influence would force him into a much bigger job. Some observers infer from Mr Bevan’s reappointment as Health Minister that the Right Wing of the Cabinet is taking a firm line on how the caretaker Labour Government must be run. “Mr Attlee has brought two of Labour’s bright young men into the Cabinet—Mr Gordon Walker and Mr McNeil. Mr Attlee’s creation of the Economic Affairs portfolio is taken as an indication that the Cabinet fore-

(N.Z.P.A.— Copyright.) LONDON, March 1. Mr Attlee last night announced the personnel of his new Labour Government. In leading articles published this morning, Condon newspapers emphasised that Mr Attlee had made no drastic Cabinet changes. “The Times” said: “It is natural enough in the present precarious state of his Governments affairs that Mr Attlee should forgo any notions of a bolder reconstruction.”

The “Daily Mail” commented: “Once more we have an uninspired and tminspiring Government. We wish them well for the country’s sake, but we do not think we shall have to stagger along with them for very long.”

The Parliamentary correspondent of “The Times” says that, as Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps will continue to shoulder the heaviest of the Government’s domestic problems. Next month he must present the Budget, and, in the present circumstances, the framing of the Budget is a matter of the greatest delicacy which may have an important effect on the next General Election. . »

“Since a Government with such a tiny majority can scarcely embark on any controversial legislation with any hope of success, a non-controversial Budget would seem inevitable, unless the Government seeks to make this a challenge to' the Opposition and the basis of their next appeal to the country,” adds the correspondent.

sees economic issues as likely to call for the greatest concentration of effort in the new Government. The creation of this Ministry increases to seven the total number of departments under Sir Stafford Cripps’s ‘umbrella.’ As Britain's economic director, the Chancellor also" supervises the Treasury and the Departments of Fuel and Power, Supply, Transport, Trade, and Food. /

“The appointment of the Minister of Economic Affairs is officially stated to have been made to give Sir Stafford Cripps additional relief from the growing pressure of business resulting from his dual responsibility with financial business and the co-ordination of economic policy. “The. most significant feature of the new Cabinet is that the skeleton of its predecessor is little disturbed. The old Right Wing towering]y predominates, both in numbers and order of precedence. Those of the new Cabinet who are not middle-of-the-road men lean well to the Right in the party philosophy, with the exception of Mr Aneurin Bevan, whose reaction to the Government turnover is unpredictable.”