New British Government: Lord Reading Retires and is Replaced by Sir John Simon As Foreign Minister:

Lord Reading is not in the new Government, which has been reconstructed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDnald, after the elections, having retired from his position as Foreign Secretary (on account of his age – he is 71-). Sir John Simon, who joined with Lord Hailsham, former Lord Chancellor, who is also included in the new Government as Minister of War, in the famous letter to the “Times” on November 4th., 1930, challenging the Passfield White Paper, as a departure from the terms of the Palestine Mandate, and demanding that “unless and until the matter is taken to the Hague Court and the Court has pronounced in their favour, the British Government should not enforce those paragraphs which are challenged”, has been appointed Foreign Secretary in place of Lord Reading. It will thus devolve upon him to explain British policy in Palestine at the meetings of the League of Nations Council, as Mr. Henderson did at the time of the Palestine disturbances of August 1929, the issue of the Passfield White Paper, the question of the Wailing Wall, and other matters affecting Palestine policy.

Sir Herbert Samuel, the leader of the Liberal Party, who has his birthday to-day, attaining the age of 61, retains his position as Home Secretary.

Mr. J. H. Thomas, who has been Secretary for the Dominions and the Colonies, returns now to the Ministry for the Dominions, and Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, who was President of the Board of Trade in the last Conservative Government and also in the first National Government, becomes Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Sir Philip, who was formerly known as Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame, assuming the name Cunliffe-Lister in 1924, was a member of the Lloyd George Coalition Government and then of the Bonar Law Government which was formed on the collapse of the Lloyd George Coalition in 1922. He is not known to have taken any stand on the Palestine question, and even during the violent “bag and baggage” campaign which was conducted by a large section of the press during the 1922 election, demanding that the British Government should “clear out of Palestine”, he made no statement either way, although all the candidates in the election were besieged with demands for statements for or against the Palestine policy, which were being published in big batches daily. In Palestine debates in Parliament, he did not vote.

Mr. Baldwin, the Conservative leader, who with Sir Austen Chamberlain and Mr. Amery sent a letter to the “Times” in October, also protesting against the Passfield White Paper, is Lord President of the Council in the new Government, and it is understood that he will be leader of the House of Commons.

Mr. Ormsby-Gore, former Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and well-known for his favourable stand on Palestine policy, who held a minor position in the first National Government, is now in the Cabinet, as First Commissioner of Works, and Sir Henry Betterton, the Conservative member of the Palestine Enquiry Commission set up after the Palestine out-break of August 1929, who was Minister of Labour in the first National Government, retains the post in the new Government, but has been promoted to the Cabinet.