10 MAY 1940, Page 6

As for the business, or diversion, of Cabinet-making, it is

being carried rather unnecessarily far. There are, of course, a number of administrative positions which it is important to see filled by the best men, but the matter of immediate con- cern is the War Cabinet itself. That is a question, or should be, of half-a-dozen men at the outside. In the Daily Mail letter referred to above the list was: Prime Minister, Lord Halifax; Ministers Without Portfolio, Mr. Winston Churchill, Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Herbert Morrison, Mr. Eden; Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, Major Attlee; Foreign Secretary, Sir Archibald Sinclair. All seven, or only the first five, would form the War Cabinet. My own list would differ slightly. I would have Lord Halifax (who is 59, while Mr. Chamberlain is 71) as Prime Minister, with Mr. Churchill as Leader of the House of Commons. Two of the other three places (if five is to be the total) I would give to Mr. Herbert Morrison and Sir Archibald Sinclair. For the fifth I should consider carefully the claims of Mr. Eden, Mr. Amery and Mr. S. M. Bruce—who knows more than most of the others about economics.