MR. ATTLEE'S NEW TEAM T HERE is little that is impressive
in the Cabinet changes announced on Wednesday. The process of revision consists much too largely of taking Ministers away from duties they understand and assigning them others of which they know nothing. That is no doubt sometimes necessary in order to make an opportunity for promotion, but in this case it has been carried to excess. This presumably is the reason why Mr. Griffiths goes to the Colonial Office, with a seat in the Cabinet. His advancement is fully deserved, as is Dr. Edith Summerskill's to the post he vacates, but Mr. Creech Jones has done admirable work at the Colonial Office ; he possessed an intimate knowledge, which it will take his successor years to acquire, of the varied and complex colonial field ; and though he was defeated at Shipley, it would have been as easy to find a seat for him as for Sir Frank Soskice, who lost his. With Mr. Bevin in poor health and Mr. Mayhew, who rendered most valuable assistance as Under-Secretary, defeated, it is surely doubtful wisdom to move Mr. Hector McNeil, who had done most valuable work where he was, to the Scottish Office ; however, Mr. Kenneth Younger should do well in his place. Still less comprehensible is the removal of Mr.Noel-Baker,fresh from most valuable experiences at the Colombo Conference and in India and Pakistan, from the Commonwealth Office and the Cabinet to the Ministry of Fuel and Power, for which he is in no way fitted except by general ability. His subordinate at the Commonwealth Office, Mr. Patrick Gordon-Walker, may be congratulated on jumping over his chief's head ; but while he is popular personally, and has shown himself a competent Parliamentary Under-Secretary, nothing in his public activities had foreshadowed his unexpected elevation to Cabinet rank.
