CABINET BURDENS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20078, 26 October 1939, Page 4

CABINET BURDENS

DEMANDS OF THE WAR NEED FOR ASSISTANCE , WHAT FORM BEST? CAUCUS NEXT MONTH (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. An important caucus of the Parliamentary Labour Party is to be called early in November to deal with some matters which had been raised during the final weeks of last session, but deferred until the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, had recovered from his illness..

The outstanding question is that of the constitution of the Cabinet, a matter on which the Prime Minister is actually the final authority. The possibility of strengthening the Cabinet has been a subject of lively discussion in the party ranks since last general election and early action is expected now because war tasks have made help imperative for several overburdened Ministers.

Possibly there would have been readjustments by this time but for the Prime Minister’s state of health. He is making so steady a recovery that the matter need not be further deferred. and he will be able to preside at the coining meeting of his Parliamentary supporters. War Tasks of Cabinet War tasks have made tremendous demands on the Cabinet Ministers. Every phase of the nation’s activities has to be directed towards the single objective of placing all New Zealand s man power and productive resources at. the disposal of Britain. The New Zealand Government, is purchasing outright from the producer all the principal exported products, which it in turn sells to the Imperial Government. This phase of war activity alone represents an enormous expansion of Ministerial responsibility.

Organisation of supplies within the Dominion is another task of magnitude, complicated by the operation of the import restrictions. The Hon. D. G. Sullivan as Minister of Supplies carries this duty in addition to the administration of the Railway Department. Long before the war it was thought that his work, particularly in view of the importance of price control, had become extremely heavy, and the outcome of the caucus probably will give Mr. Sullivan some relief. The Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, also should get further help from the ranks of the party.

The expansion of defence activities is not the least of the additional burdens being carried by the Cabinet. Things appear to have gone smoothly and the developments have been rapid under the direction of the Hon. F. Jones, whose reorganisation of the control of the various arms of the defence forces during peace-time are now showing the expected results. Here again there is need for active administrative help. Ministers or Under-Secretaries? Will the Cabinet be numerically strengthened? The paid positions defined in the Civil List are limited, and the chances are that the appointment of additional Cabinet Ministers will not be the favoured plan to bring help to hard-pressed Ministers. The Government has power to appoint an indefinite number of Parliamentary Under-Secretaries at a salary of £620 per annum, though only one has been given the position so far, Mr. J. A. Lee, who is associated with the Hon. H. T. Armstrong in the active promotion of the housing scheme.

The belief in Parliamentary circles prior to the end of last session was that the appointment of several more Parliamentary Under-Secretaries probably would turn out to be the solution of a problem which the war has made pressing.

In these matters the Prime Minister, although prepared to fully consult his rank and file supporters in caucus, reserves to himself the Prime Minister’s traditional right of being “sole selector.”

This principle was fought out before the general conference of the party, which carried a resolution sup-, porting Mr. Savage in his stand for his constitutional privilege. It was made clear then that whoever is selected as the leader prior to a genera] election selects the Cabinet .with which he has to work, the names being submitted to the caucus, where they are discussed.

“And we may come to an understanding,” stated Mr. Savage when explaining this decision after the Easter conference. “It may be necessary,” he added, “to change one or two, but it is for me to say whether that shall be done or not, and if there is any deadlock I can ask the national executive to give assistance, and after hearing it I decide. The same principle will operate in connection with any major question.” Parliamentary Under-Secretaries do not attend Cabinet meetings. They work in close association with a Minister, and their recommendations have to be taken to Cabinet by their Ministerial head. The appointment of Under-Secretaries as an alternative to enlarging the Cabinet no doubt would be regarded as a major question on which the understanding indicated above undoubtedly would operate.