NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE Ministerial changes announced on Monday leave the strength of the Cabinet little changed. Lord Harlech is a distinct loss. As Mr. Ormsby-Gore he had a consistently sound record of administration, and he is the type of pro- gressive Conservative always valuable in a Cabinet for his personality, quite apart from his departmental experience. The substitution of Sir Kingsley Wood for Lord Swinton is a definite improvement, but very much less so than the appointment of Mr. Churchill would have been ; and the Ministry of Health should not suffer with Mr. Walter Elliot as its new head. It is a thorny kind of compliment to Mr. Malcolm MacDonald to send him to the Colonial Office to deal with Palestine, but he is as good a Minister as could be found for the task, particularly after his success with Ireland, and the appointment may give an excuse for a revision of the partition policy, which, despite its original attractions, looks less workable every day. Of the other changes little need be said, though it is satisfactory to find two of the younger back-benchers, Captain Harold Balfour and Mr. R. H. Cross, getting advancement. Mr. Attlee's comment, that " it's not much use shuffling the cards when it's a new pack you want " is not quite as pertinent as it sounds —if the alternative is the pack Mr. Attlee would like to deal.
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