11 JANUARY 1946, Page 4

The resignation of Mr. Ellis Smith from the Parliamentary Secre-

taryship of the Board of Trade will not shake the Government to its foundations. Indeed, though Mr. Ellis Smith, a worthy trade union official, is personally popular, it is doing him no injustice to say that to replace him by a better man will not tax Mr. Attlee seriously. There are half-a-dozen men of the P.P.S.—Parliamentary Private Secretary—level who would fill the position admirably. Among those who suggest themselves at once are Mr. Hugh Gaitskell, Mr. E. F. M. Durbin and Major John Freeman.

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