Evening star., 1929-06-30

warden. Both are teetotalers. Lord
Parmoor has long career as an eccle-
Siastical lawyer, was vicar general 70 the
Church of England. as well as attorney
general to the Prince of Wales. Lord
Justice Sankey, the new lord cham
ceIlor, fought against the disestablish-
ment of the Church of Wales and wrote
the constitution of the church when
disestablishment came. And A. ".
Alexander, who has been placed at the
head Of the admiralty as heavyweight
pacifist to hold the admirals down, Is a
former Baptist lay preacher.
A CoIorfuI Lot.
If the Conservative government. ex-
| cept for the mercurial Winston, the re-
doubtable Jix and Chamberlain'S mon
ocle, was rather drab, there seems to
be no dearth of characters" IN the
Socialist one. There is, to begin with,
Thomas. whose blatantly plebeian out
lines, unconcealed by the inevitable
dress suit, are to the cartoonist an In
exhaustible source of mirth. Thomas,
who is said to have told an after-olrner
audience how the policeman on dHty
In. Downing street took him for
plumber instead Of his majestys home
secretary, appears even funnier now.
decked out with feudal title Of lord
privy seal. He is, incidentally, one OF
| the best after-dinner story tellers in
England, and at his best when the
laugh is on himself. The expensive
cigar is as much Of a trade mark with
him as the homely pipe is with Bald
win. He doesn't mind being taken Tor
nIutocrat or even parvenu.
Clynes Is the opposite type OF self
made man--the class conscious tvpe.
This little man. white haired and white
mustached, bristleS with Importance
IL rf~@A IA
was one of seven children OF an Irish
laborer in the Oldham slums, and the
outstanding memory Of his youth Is
how he spent six cents week on can
dies learning words out OF the dc
| tionary
He organized the Lancashire Gas
Workers Union and is still president Of
the National Union of Municipal Work
ers. He is fond of uttering weighty
epigrams like Life is higher than con-
stitutions and constitutions must be
adapted to preserve it, but manages
to get himself taken seriously most OF
the time His seIf-sacrifice in favor of
party peace, which raised Macdonald to
undisputed leadership, has earned him
the undying gratitude Of the party.
Not a Conjurer.
Tom Shaw. the new secretary for
Thomas. He is a large. burly North
Country man with big, booming
voice. AS organizer of the textile work
ers he is primarily interested in his
own kind, but he has an international
outlook and is favorite in the House.
When he was Labor minister In the last
Socialist government he countered crit
icism with the remark, II can't pro-
duce rabbits out of hat"
Another real Hrhararfarb fe that Y7AW
recruit to the party, Lord Justice San
key, now lord chancellor. He Is a
bachelor, aged 81, and has been law
| yer and a Judge all his life. He never
bothered about politics and spends his
spare time tramping over the Surrey
Downs, of which he knows every inch.
His dress suggests a tramp rather
than a high court Judge. When on as
sizes he was always known to walk into
town. having got on the train eight CT
ten miles out. He Is never in a hurry,
but always on time. Sankey came into
national prominence as chairman OF
the national coal commission OF 1919
and showed his independence by rem
dering minority report signed only by
himself. It advocated the nationaliza-
ton of the mines.
A Leader Of the Bar.
In violent contrast to him Is that
other recruit to socialism, W. A. Jowitt,
the new attorney general. At "A Jowitt
| Is not only the acknowledged leader
of the English bar. but it's handsomest
ornament. He is one Of those creatures
on whom the gods shower all their
gifts, beauty. wisdom and wealth.
The perquisiteS of the attorney gen.
erals ONCE are in the neighborhood
| of 100000 a year, yet MIR. Jowftt' Is
said to be Sacrificing q more lucra-
| tive practice to his political career.
He is probably the subtlest cross
examiner In Britain, and his selection
as the crowns chief advocate Is very
popular move. Incidentally, he will give
the Tory debaters in the House their
moneys worth.
The oldest member of the new gov
ernment is Sidney Webb. one of the
pioneers of English socialism and the
party's great theorist. He and his wife.
Beatrice Webb. the ideal couple" Of
politics. who already figured promi-
nently In H. G. Wells novel, "The New
Machiavelli," personify the intellectual
| side of England's radical movements
during the last so years. They are
SO inseparable that somebody Sug-
gested that Webb's title. when raised to
the peerage (as he will be-, should be
| Lord Sidney of Beatrice. The seat, at
any rate, win be occupied by "the
| Webbs.'
A Couple Of BlOOds.
The two "swells" of the government
who carry their past most lightly-al-
most hippantly-are Lord Thomson and
| Sir Oswald Mosley, husband Of Lady
Cynthia and one Of the richest men In
the House. Lord Thomson was brig
adler general. and his father was
comes Of died-in-the-wool Tory stock
and finds Zest in living it down. He
| smiles-or winks-whenever he is ad-
dressed as my lord and takes par
ticular pleasure in telling about the
snobs who simply won't understand
that "I'm no blooming, bloody lord
Oswald Mosley. who once. said he
/ wouldn't use his title when he got 1t,
is now always ostentatiously referred TO
/ as "Sir Oswald MoSley, Bart" With
| his 80 years, his slender figure and
| fetching little muStache, he Is sure to
| be one Of the brightest ornaments of
the front bench, and in the ornamental
| office of Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster he is not likely to have to
stand much croSS-fir9 from the Tory
questioners. Not that he couldn't He
and Lady Cynthia will be the cleverest
as well as the handSomeSt couple in
| Parliament
The first and only woman in the cabi-
net, Miss Margaret Bondfeld, kindly,
motherly looking woman Of Sc, Is sure
| to come in for lot of this criticism
and questioning, and 1t will be difncult
for cartoonists to resist the jibes that
the unprecedented figure Of lady privy
councillor suggests. Already they are
busy suggesting female uniform which
win be in line with the traditional
cooked hat. gold-incrusted tailcoat and
knee breeches of that ancient dignity.
| What is to be done?
But Margaret Bondheld in Downing
| Street is worrying about other things.