A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE Cabinet changes are few, but they do not, I believe, represent finality. Two of the Defence Ministers, Sir Bolton .Eyres-Monsell and Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, both translated to the Upper House, are doubtful stayers, and I shall be surprised if Mr. Ormsby-. Core does not get one post or the other. That prospect explains what would. otherwise be inexplicable, his con- t inued relegation to the office of First Commissioner of Works. The retention of Lord Halifax in the Ministry is matter .for much satisfaction, and Mr. Duff Cooper as Minister for War gets a chance which he has long deserved.' Mr. Malcolm MacDonald has done well at the Colonial Office and will do better as Dominions Secretary, for which his participation in the Ottawa Conference and his very successful mission in Australia last year particularly equip him. It would be affectation not to express relief at his substitution for Mr. Thomas. But the problem of providing him with a seat has yet to be solved. The Scottish Universities will not provide one. As a univer- sity man he would be a better candidate for the vacancy caused by Mr. Noel Skelton's regretted death than his father, but the idea that a university seat should be used as a mere political convenience has rightly evoked emphatic protests. Unless the universities can produce members of a different type from the ordinary party politician they -deserve to be disfranchised, and pretty certainly will be. . * * * *
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