LABOUR’S CABINET

Hokitika Guardian, 11 June 1929, Page 3

LABOUR’S CABINET

NOTES ON THE MEMBERS. The Scottish legal Cabinet appointments are still under consideration. It : s also announced that the reason why Hie name o>f Sir Henry .Slesser, win was Solictor-General in the last Labour Government, does not appear in t..e list is that other services have been assigned to him, which will he made known later, while it is pointed out that Mr Vernon Hartshorn, who was Postmaster-General in the previous Labour .administration, is temporarily engaged on the Indian Statutory commission. Lord Arnold, unpaid Paymaster-Gen-eral i»i the new Government, has accepted a position with nominal duties in order to Ik; free for work in the House of Lords, and in other ways. Sir Oswald Mosley and Mr George Lansbury, it is announced, will also have other duties imposed upon them in connexion with the schemes for national reconstruction which are being prepared., Although several Ministers have changed to 'other Departments, 13 out. of 19 members of the new Cabinet Were members of the 1924 Labour Cabinet, in his earlier Administration Mr MacDonald himself combined the duties of Foreign Secretary, now undertaken by Air Henderson, with those of Prime •Minister and First Lord of the Treasury. The following are a few,details regarding the new Ministers:—

AIR. RAMSAY MACON A ED. Mr Ramsay MacDonald is of pessimistic.mould. His philosophy is one of gloom. Nothing in the world is right, or bright, and everything needs his influence aricl that of his Party to make it fit -for people to Jive in, wrote the “ Sydney .Morning Herald’s ” London correspondent recently. .His outlook is abruptly revolutionary. He is an apostle of slow change, and therein lies the cause of his unpopularity with many of his followers. O-f the three Party leaders, .lie is probably the most widely-read and deepl.vJenrned, hut he is a.theorist and a .scholar more than.a practical man. Because of that he could never be a great Prime Minister, or even a great Party leader. His idealism and thought lift him away into the clouds .when he should be planted on firm .earth, to withstand all the winds that blow. Of his sincerity -not even his most hitter opponent .doubts. He can control his followers, onlv By supreme logic, not by the , placid assurance of a Baldwin ,or the magnetism and fire of a Lloyd George. As a quiet English .flame burns unwaveringly in Mr Baldwin, and a Welsh bonfire flares in Mr Lloyd George, so a| Scotch ember smoulders in Air AlacDonald. Only the wind of fierce anger j fans it into flame, and it is only when i he is hurt by aspersions against the I honour and principles of himself and his Party that he reaches real greatness. !

Mr MacDonald is a martyr to his conscience. His honesty and his faith are undoubted, but be is ready to sacrifice his most valuable lieutenant for a cause. ,His moral courage is great. He can face the anger of opponents and supporters alike, but curiously his Scotch dourness sometimes gives way ;to a vacillation .which is irritating to his colleagues. His lean, worried face, crowned by thinning, generally unkempt hair, is truly the mirror of his soul. it seldom advertises his emotions, but it bears nearly always the mark of austere thovght which sb largely influences the Labour Leader’s character.

MR .PHILIP SNOWDEN. Mr Snowden was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the first Labour Government. He first entered Parliament in 1906. He entered the Civil Service as a youth, afterwards taking up journalism, and he has written .and lectured extensively on social and financial questions. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1924. MR ARTHUR HENDERSON. Mr Henderson was Homo Secretary in the first Labour Government. He first entered Parliament in 1903, was made a Privy Councillor in 1915, was president of the Board of Education in 1915, and Paymaster-General and Labour Adviser to the Government in 1916. He went on a Government mission to Russia in the following year, and was. a member of the War Cabinet without portfolio. He has been president of the Labour and Socialist International since 1926. MR J. H. THOMAS. Mr Thomas was Colonial Secretary in the first Labour Government. He has been Labour member of Parliament for Derby since 1910 and for many years general secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen. He was made a Privy ■Councillor in 1917. Tt is stated that, .he will now devote himself mainly to, the unemployment problem, with Mr -Lnnsbury and Sir Oswald Mosley as his. principal lieutenants. MR SIDNEY WEBB. Mr Sidney Webb was made a Privy Councillor in 1924, and has been a, member of'Parliament since 1922. He recently notified his intention of retiring from Parliamentary life. He is an authority on economics and has .written, voluminously on that subject in collaboration witli his wife, Mrs 'Beatrice Webbl i

LORD PAR MOOR. Lord Parmoor was Lord President of tlie Council ill the first Labour Government, and represented Great Britain at the League of Nations. He was a provisional King’s Counsel, and .was specially appointed a judicial member of the i'rivy Council in 1914, in which year he was created a peer. He first entered Parliament as a Conservative in 1890, and has been leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords. LORD JUSTICE SANKEY. Lord Justice Sankey has been Lord Justice of Appeal since last year. He was chairman of the Coal Industry Commission in 1919. Lord Justice Sailkey will, it is expected, be raised to the peerage. AIR J. R, CLYNES. Alr Clynes was Lord Privy Seal and Deputy-Leader of the House of Com moils m the first Labour Government. He' first entered Parliament in 190(5. During .the war he was First .Parlia mentaiy Secretary for the Ministry of .Food,.and afterwards Food Controller. He was made a Privy Councillor in .1918. i CAPTAIN WEDGWOOD BENN. Captain Wedgwood Benn had a brilliant career as .an airman during the war, receiving the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Flying Cross, as well as.the Legion of Honour, the Croix de Guerre, tlie Italian Bronze Valour Medal, the Italian War Cross, and other decorations for gallantry in the Near East and Afeditorannean. He entered the Commons as a Liberal in 1906 and held several posts, including that of Junior Lord of the Treasury in the pre-war Liberal Administration. He joined the Labour Party in 1927.

MR THOMAS SHAW. Air Thomas. Shaw was Labour Minister in the first,•Labour Government, and lias been a member of the Commons since 1918, and a Privy Councillor.since 1924. He was sometime joint •secretary of the Labour and Socialist International. LORD THOMSON. P’ig.-Gen. Lord Thomson returns to tlie post he held in the first Lmo.ur Administration. A regular Army officer. serving in the South African and Great Wars, he was attached to the Supreme War Council in 1918, retir.ng with the honorary rank of Brignd.ovGeneral in the following year. AIR A. GREENWOOD. Air A. Greenwood has been a Member of Parliament since 1922. He is secretary of the Labour Party’s dfine arch and Information Department, and is interested particularly in health and other social questions.

MISS MARGARET BONDFIELD. With the appointment of ivliss Margaret Bondfield as Minister for Labour a woman attains Cabinet rank for the first time. Miss Bondfield was Parliamentary Secretary to the Labour Minister in the last Labour Government. She lias been actively engaged in women’s trade union movements, was Labour adviser to the Labour Convention at Washington in 1919, and subsequently for several years at Geneva, under the League of Nations. MR NOEL BUXTON. Mr Noel Buxton entered Parlianunt in 1910 as a Liberal, joining Labour in 1922, and was Minister for Agriciiilu-'O in the first Labour Government. Ho is a member' of a well-known family of East-England landowners. SIR CHARLES TREVELYAN. Sir Charles Trevelyan is a son of the noted historian, Sir George Trevelyan, He returns to the post lie hell in the earlier Labour Government. He first entered Parliament as a Liberal, and was, before the war, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education. He joined the Labour Party aftei the war. MR WILLIAM GRAHAM. Mr William Graham was Financial Secretary to the Treasury in the last labour Government. He entered Parliament in 1918, and was made a Privy Councillor in 1924. He has taken a leading part in the .framing of financial legislation, and has written extensively on social, industrial, and economic questions. MR A. V. ALEXANDER. Mr A. V. Alexander was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in the earlier .Labour Ministry. He has been closely .identified with the cooperative movement. He was an Army officer during the war. OTHER MINISTERS. Mr W. Adamson has been a member of Parliament since 1910, and was .the Miners’ Union leader. He held the same post (Secretary of State for Scotland; in the first Labour Government. Mr George Lansbury first entered Parliament m 1910. He was prominently identified.with the women’s suffrage movement, and was formerly editor of the “ Daily Herald,” and is now editor of a Labour weekly. He is prominently identified with the .Independent,Labour Party, and is expected to act as “ Assistant Minister tor ,Unemplo>ment ” .to Mr Thomas. Mr E. O’ Roberts was Minister for

Pensions in the first Labour Government. He entered Paliamont in 1918, and became a Privy Councillor in 1924.

Air W. A. Jowitt was a Liberal member of Parliament from 1922 to 1924. He is a prominent King’s Counsel, with one of the largest practices at the Bar. llis acceptance of a post in the Labour Administration is ail interesting development.