Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24 1942. THE BRITISH MINISTRY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24 1942. THE BRITISH MINISTRY.

JN conjunction with the recent reorganisation of the War Cabinet, tJie further changes now announced in the British Ministry constitute a reconstruction of considerable scope and of interesting possibilities. The full significance of the changes made will appear only in working experience, but the view appears to be held widely in Britain that Mr Churchill, though he did not yield very readily to public demands for an infusion of new blood into his Ministerial team, has given way with a good grace, and has made changes which will help Io impart a new impetus and energy to the conduct of the war

It has been said that, apart from their bearing on the conduct of the war, the British Cabinet changes as a whole represent a concession to the view that preparation must be made for inevitable social change. One commentator has observed that the important ecclesiastical appointments just announced in Britain—those of Dr. William Temple as Archbishop of Canterbury and of Dr. C. F. Garbett as Archbishop of York—are also significant from the same standpoint. The new Primate and the new Archbishop of York are both of them keenly interested in social progress and reform. The overshadowing preoccupation of the British Government for the time being of necessity is the prosecution of the war, but it is coming more and more to be recognised that preparations must be made in good time for bold measures of social reconstruction and advance when the war is over.

One effect of the British Cabinet changes plainly will be to facilitate the development of still closer and more cordial relations with Russia. The appointment to the War Cabinet of Sir Stafford Cripps, at the termination of his comparatively brief but notably successful term as British Ambassador to the Soviet Union, speaks for itself in this matter. On the other hand, Colonel Moore-Brabazon, who retires from the post of Minister of Aircraft Production, has been regarded as by no means entirely friendly towards Russia. References he made to the Soviet Uion in a speech some months ago were denounced hotly by British Labour organisations, and some demands were then made for his dismissal.

Sir Stafford Cripps is frankly an advocate of the closest possible co-operation with Russia, in the war and after the war. Many even of those who formerly regarded Soviet Russia as a dangerous and disturbing influence in world affairs —amongst them Mr Churchill himself—probably now are convinced that a policy of the fullest co-operation with that Country is inevitable and essential. It is plain enough that Russia is playing and will continue to play an important part in the defeat of Axis aggression, and it is equally clear that future peace must be based upon comprehensive and broad-based international organisation—an organisation from which Russia could not possibly be excluded. That the degree of understanding and agreement between nations -which would consolidate and safeguard -world peace will not be attained easily does not make it any the less necessary that understanding and agreement should be sought.