MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S NEW CABINET

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 178, 23 April 1919, Page 2

MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S NEW CABINET

SHARP PKESS COMMENT ' AN INDIAN PEER If the new British Ministry' was dcpendent upon the good will oi' the Press tor motive power its movements (says; "Public Opinion") would lie distinctly Blow, for the Press criticisms of the new Ministry have' been very sharp arid: pointed. "There aro twelve or fiftocu people", capable of being Cabinet .Ministers in this country," says the "Daily Express."' "Possibly there are' another 'twenty whomight be qualified for the rank of undersecretaries. Outside this list uo oneneed apply. What would occur, if .one,/ of these'selected few happened to retire' or.die? It would .bo clearly impossible" to..~fill his place out of tb,e forty-five/ millions who make yup the inhabitants e£. theseiislands!" ' * : Lord Sinb^a, .The most .generously welcomed;, appointment ie tnat of- Sir S. P. Sinha, an. Indian, to be Under-Secretary for India,., with a seat in the House of Lords. . He., j is the first man to Hold that post and the. ' first to be made a peer. Perhaps the. most striking thing in the whole list isthat Sir S. P. Sinha, a spokesman of' native opinion, becomes Under-Secretary. That means moro than a milestone for Indian progress. It is of the boldest augury for the reality of reform,** says the "Observer." "It is th» first time that a native of India has figured in a British ' Government," say 6 the "Mail," "and it clearly inaks a stage in that development of Indian self-government which is to b» one of Mr. Lloyd.George's task's." "This appointment," the "Times"-says,, "is'ft rare stroke; of imagination," "A told' precedent which promises very/ well," says' the "Daily News." Business Men in the. Cabinei. ■- "By retaining bis old' colleagues practically, eu blqc, he has : iheritablv'succeeded here and there in perpetuating his good experiments." says' the "Times/ ' "The . Geddcs l^ brothers, Mr.. Herbert Fisher, and Sir Joseph Maclay may be taken as-instances'-and there are others -of successful Ministers brought straight, from- the "world outside Parliament in Mr. Lloyd. George's during days. These men will remain, at least for .the pre-, sent, ■ and -there are obvious difficulties; under the new conditions of peace in, making more experiments of the kind.. ■Mr. Andrew Weir (now a Peer and Minister of Munitions and Supply) and Sir Robert- Home, who becomes head ol a great and important Department on his first entering the, House of Commons, represent the nearest approach to those breaches, with Parliamentary tradition which the public always hail with sympathetic interest."' The Irish Secretary. "Mr. Lan Macpherson will go with, general good will to his difficult task: in Ireland/' saiys the "Times," "vet ic. may well be doubted whether Ireland, was not one of those exceptional cases, (like the Ministry of Education and the, India Office) where continuity of administration was moro important -..nhn thepromotion of the individual. Jt 16-frank-lv impossible to dissociate Mr. blunts translation to the Home Office from his obvious recent disagreement with Lord. '™Mr.' Shortt is" still soniewhat of a, dark horse," says the "Daily Chronicle, and his appointment to the Home Office, at a time when there is talk of making: the Home Secretary Minister of Justice, in addition to-much else, belongs to. those acts of audacity which are strokes, of genius when they succeed. Ireland is-to-day, a* it has been for so long, tie chief problem of the British Governm ; nt at home, and we pan only hope that in hs wrestle with it Mr. Macpherson maybe 'more'. foHuuate than his predeces6™"Mr;' Long at^thei Admiralty?•*■'• The critics'ask''wliat Mr." Walter Long knows iiboufc the Admiralty. ■ "Mr. Walter Long goes to the Admiralty without any corresponding «»)>»«- tion whatever. This: is unfair, both to, Mr Long and the British Empire," says the "Observer." , ~ "Mr. Long's appointment to the -Ul--11 to IJn eeteted (or to have Sd himself) {or the .one he is calculated to inspire the greatest Ustrusl We lmve never underrated Mr Churchill's abilities, ami there is just this to lie said for his present choice that he mav be trusted to keep the Army an? the War Office to the. front at a time when they ran theVrisk of being- neglected. But he wouldhave en far better placed outright «A t!» Ministrv of Air, which is apparently to fall for tk moment .under his suzerainty-