The average age of members of the reconstructed Cabinet is
alleged to be 53 ; that is still some way short of senility. To the two obvious questions, Is the Cabinet strengthened, in average ability ? and Is its general political orientation in any way changed ? no clear answers can be given. Lord Harlech and Lord Swinton go ; Colonel Colville and Lord Stanley come in. In matters of general policy Lord Harlech was a Conservative of the Left, Lord Swinton decidedly was not ; on the whole their simultaneous departure leaves the balance undisturbed. And neither Colonel Colville nor Lord Stanley is likely to swing it much either way ; they have both so far kept pretty much to the middle of the road and seem to like it. In the matter of ability Lord Harlech ranked high ; Lord Swinton was never anything more than ordinary at the Colonial Office or the Board of Trade. At the Air Ministry he is said to have worked hard, but so much in that department is necessarily done behind a screen that despite the volubility of critics the average M.P. has little material for a just estimate of the Minister's personal record. Mr. Walter Elliot, who never wanted to be Secretary of State for Scotland but has made a good job of it, returns from a backwater to the main stream as head of an important office in which his medical training will be useful. But it is a Cabinet without the two outstanding Conservatives in the House of Commons— Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden.
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