3 NOVEMBER 1939, Page 6

Since a very pertinent passage in a recent speech by

Sir Arthur Salter in the House of Commons went totally un- reported in the daily Press I will reproduce it here. Sir Arthur recalled the names of the men responsible at the most critical periods in the last War for what he called " six Ministries which are vital to the proper organisation of our economic effort "—the Treasury, the Ministry of Supply, the Board of Trade, the Ministries of Economic Warfare, Food and Shipping. They were—Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Churchill, Lord Ashfield (now chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board), Lord Cecil, Lord Rhondda, Lord Maclay. He suggested that Members might make a silent comparison as he went through the list. To assist readers of this column I will go a little further. The holders of those offices today are—Sir John Simon, Mr. Burgin, Mr. Oliver Stanley, Mr. Ronald Cross, Mr. W. S. Morrison and Sir John Gilmour. Are we better off? The comparison it should be added, is not strictly fair, for the six Ministers in the last War were not all in office simultaneously ; the post-1916 Chancellor of the Exchequer was Mr. Bonar Law. But that does not materially diminish the force of it.