MacDONALD’S TEAM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 683, 7 June 1929, Page 1

MacDONALD’S TEAM

More Definite Prediction THOMAS AS LORD PRIVY SEAL Henderson For Foreign Office (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Received 11 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. WITH the certainty that the King will be ready on Saturday to hand the new Ministers their seals of office, there is more definite talk of their allocation. There are strongest grounds for saying that Mr. J. H. Thomas will be given the post of Lord Privy Seal.

He will be able to concentrate on ,he "Ministry of Unemployment,” for which he has several schemes of his, own devising, notably railway betterment. There is no definite hint, yet who will go to the Dominions Office. Mr. Arthur Henderson seems marked out for the Foreign Secretaryship. A political correspondent, who attended the conference of the Labour executives at Transport House, says Mr. MacDonald’s Cabinet is not finally completed, but will probably be announced on Saturday immediately after the new Prime Minister has submitted the full list to his Majesty. It was decided at the conference to open immediately a great victory and thanksgiving fund to which all sections of the Labour movement will be invited to contribute. The fund is for the use of the party in carrying on the work of strengthening its organisation in readiness for the next General Election. Undoubtedly one of Mr. MacDonald’* great difficulties is that roughly 200 members of his party are seeking office. However, he is determined to decide absolutely single-handed who will be his Ministers. He conversed with Lord Arnold in his motor-car outside the hall. RELATIONS WITH AMERICA Lord Arnold, who will probably be a member of the new Cabinet, indicated to an interviewer that decisions already had been made in regard to the new Government’s immediate course of action. One of the first steps will be taken in connection with the relations between Britain and America. The chilly handling of that issue by the Baldwin Government, said Lord Arnold, largely caused its defeat. Discussions would proceed as soon as the new American Ambassador, Mr. C. G. Dawes, arrived in London regarding the limitation of arms. Lord Arnold admitted that La-

bour was faced with great problems. but he expressed optimism and his conviction that the change was for the better. It is not proposed to prolong the forthcoming sittings of Parliament, which is to meet on June 25. The first duty of the House of Commons will be to elect the Speaker, who again will be Captain E. A. Fitzroy iConservative). Then the members will be sworn in. That will occupy a week.

The Labour Government will not invite Parliament immediately to consider important legislative measures. The fact that Parliament is not equipped for serious business until the second week in July at the earliest makes it impossible for the House of Commons to tackle a legislative programme before the summer holidays. No legislation will be required to Rive effect to Labour’s intention of pressing for the speedy convocation of a general disarmament conference, nor in connection with the proposed re-establishment x>f diplomatic relations with Russia. Much will be done in the domestic sphere, such as housing and education. There is reason to believe that the Labour Party intends to do considerable work in connection with these and with the relief of unemployment by the administrative machine.

Labour also intends immediately to deal with widows, orphans, and old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. It is believed that Mr. Philip Snowden will greatly revise Mr. "Winston Churchili's second Finance Bill. He is strongly opposed to Mr. Churchill’s betting tax arrangement, and also denounces the reduction of liquor licences. Many people doubt whether Mr. Churchill’s second Finance Bill will ever see the light. LABOUR GETS TO WORK first move in meeting UNEMPLOYMENT SCHEMES OF MR. THOMAS British Official 'Wireless R ecd. 10.55 a.m. RUGBY, Thursday. -Aiter paying a visit today to No. 10 gowning Street, Mr. Ramsay M:*DonJjd. the new Prime Minister, declared: . * w ent to Downing Street to set mov--IQS the organisation work connected the first real handling of the uueJn Ployment problem. That work has already begun.” It ia recalled that Mr. J. H. Thomas, outlined definite plans of his own or dealing with unemployment in some of his speeches during the elecdon campaign, and the forecasts a §ree that he will be entrusted with ne problem. Railway reorganisation development is one of these plans. •k Sonias believes that a revival of M Trac * e Facilities Act would ensole the railway companies to under-

take schemes for electrical equipment and other methods of modernisation which they are precluded from embarking upon at present, owing to their inability to raise loans on sufficiently advantageous terms. He has indicated, too, the necessity for a new railway ring around London, to overcome the delay, inconvenience and cost of carting goods across London from one depot to another. Another scheme which Mr. Thomas has put forward is that of making a more adequate State pension provision for men of from 60 to 65 years of age, so as to remove them altogether from industry, thus providing work for younger men at present unemployed. His plan is that the saving on unemployment relief would go a long way toward meeting the cost of larger pensions. It is anticipated that the first meeting of the new Cabinet will be held on Monday. Mr. MacDonald will then take the opportunity of spending a much-needed holiday of very short duration before the new Parliament meets. He will visit Lossiemouth, bis Scottish home.

RESTING AFTER TOIL DEFEATED MINISTERS IN THEIR GARDENS BALDWIN RESUMES TENNIS (United Service) LONDON, Thursday. It is popularly supposed that Ministers dislike surrendering office. However, the political writer of the “Daily Mail” says Mr. Baldwin and his collegaues appear to be considerably relieved, notably Sir Austen Chamberlain, who yesterday was busy weeding his rock garden at Twitts Ghyll, his home in Sussex. Mr. Baldwin has started to play lawn tenuis again and has purchased a friend’s second-hand racket. Mr. Winston Churchill has spent the last two days in removing mud from a stream in the garden at his home at Wcsterham, Kent. He is now free to enter the city, and will shortly be offered directorships of a bank and an insurance company. Furthermore Mr. Churchill has signed contracts for journalistic work. He has undertaken to write an up-to-date history of his ancestor the great Duke of Marlborough.

RUSSIA’S REACTION BRITISH CHARACTER NOT CHANGED SOVIET PAPER’S WARNING Times Cable Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. The Riga correspondent of “The Times” writes: “Now perhaps the world will breathe more freely,” is how the Soviet's official paper, “Izvesta,” sums up Mr. Baldwin’s decision to resign. The paper says: “The masses so hated Baldwin's Government that the result of the election was never in doubt. It was a period of the blackest reaction in England’. Baldwin’s Government will be relegated to posterity as one of the most aggressive Governments Britain ever had. It was responsitile for the intensive war preparatiohs now proceeding in capitalist countries.” The paper concludes by warning Russia that the change of Governments does not mean a permanent change in the character of British capitalism. “The temporary improvement will be inconsiderable. The workers of the Soviet Union must remember that forces similar to tho:3e which composed Baldwin’s Government continue to threaten new world cataclysms.” BETTER WITH DICTATOR POLITICS A FUTILE GAME, WRITES INGE RUIN OF LANDED GENTRY (Australian and A'.Z. Press Association) Reed. 9.40 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. “Politics is an expensive and futile game. We would all be better off under a capable dictator.” writes Dean W. R. Inge in an article on the election in the Church of England newspaper.

“Mr. Snowden probably will complete the ruin of the landed gentry, and bleed the upper and middle classes white; but the amount of loot is likely to be disappoint |.g. The habit of no longer looking to Parliament for constructive measures has been confirmed by the inertia and futility of Mr. Baldwin’s Government.”