lance of office is mainly due to a desire to have the India Office adequately represented in the House of Lords on the resumption of Parliamentary business when the India Bill has to run the gaunt-of of their lordships' criticisms.
With that Bill virtually certain of statutory rank, Sir Samuel Hoare may well feel that his continuance at King Charles Street would be an anti-climax. His has certainly earned promotion in the Cabinet hierarchy, but whether the combine ation of the coming election, the impending vacancy in New Delhi when the Earl of Willingdon retires in the Spring, Mr. Eden's portfolio-less state "and Lord Zetland's belated entry into high office, are signs of possible readjustments later in the year cannot now be more than surmised.
With the next Viceroyalty several names in the present Cabinet have been associated and the recent visit paid to India by the Earl of Athlone also prompted speculation.
The national complexion of the Cabinet has been preserved. Mr. MacDonald and his son, Mr. J. H.
Thomas stand for National Labour; Sir John Simon, Mr. Ernest Brown for National Liberalism. The remaining names indicate the strength of the Government's Conservative support. Various developments since the early weeks of the year—when the Government's stock was low—have combined to create a favourable outlook for Mr. Baldwin's administration. The Budget, the (urn of affairs in Europe, the unanimity of Parliament on the issue of National Defence have tended to strengthen Conservative confidence. Much must depend, however, on the readiness of the Government to take constructive measures for the reduction of the still formidable roll of unemployment. Mr. Lloyd George's name has not been mentioned, but there is no reason to believe that he will be to forego an opportunity of pressing his own schemes on national attention, assuming, as seems probable, that his ce-operation with the Government in the formal sense, is out of the question. On the whole the reconstructed Cabinet, on the lines suggested in the forecast, seems a sound and effective combination. Mr. Baldwin's leadership has already proved itself. He commands far more confidence than his own deprecating <diffidence sometimes suggests. His handling of his own "rebels" during the past
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.