21 MARCH 1931, Page 2

Ministerial Changes Lord Ponsonby has become Chancellor of the Duchy

of Lancaster in succession to Major Attlee, who is now Postmaster-General. Mr. Henry Snell has been created a Peer and has succeeded the late Lord Russell as Under- Secretary of State for India. Mr. J. A. Parkinson has succeeded Lord Ponsonby as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport. We wish that the Govern- ment would advise His Majesty to create more Labour peerages. It is very desirable to strengthen Labour in the House of Lords. The policy of ignoring the House of Lords does not work. A reformed House of Lords might do an enormous amount to relieve the present congestion. There are welcome signs, however, that the Labour Party is abandoning its former fussy and rather snobbish doctrine that its members are too good for honours. Surely the solution is to make honours (by awarding them for merit only) contribute to the best service of the country. New values and meanings can be conferred upon old names and customs in accord- ance with what is, after all, a very happy British practice. *. * •