Musical Chairs

On only ten minutes' notice, Prime Minister Mackenzie King called a press conference one evening last week. As a dozen newsmen hustled over to the East Block, they found the P.M. waiting for them with some long-expected news.

For a long time, the P.M. had wanted to ease the burden of hardworking, dog-tired Finance Minister James Ilsley. Now he named Ilsley to the easier Justice Ministry. Justice Minister Louis St. Laurent, who had been handling foreign relations for several months as well, would now devote all his time to the External Affairs Ministry. To fill Ilsley's tough Finance job, Mr. King named young Douglas Abbott, National Defense Minister.

Two days later the P.M. called another conference, and finished the shuffle. He announced that he was consolidating all three armed services under one head: the Defense Ministry for the Army & Navy was being combined with the Air Ministry. The new and more powerful Defense Ministry--an integration of armed forces such as Great Britain achieved recently--will be headed by Brooke Claxton, who has been Health Minister. Secretary of State Paul Martin was moved up into the Health Ministry, and Air Minister Colin Gibson got Martin's post.

The Cabinet shuffle seemed like only a game of musical chairs. But it was more than that. The P.M. succeeded in giving some of his Cabinet members, weary from wartime service, easier jobs without losing them. If any had left, the P.M. might have had to bring in new men from outside, involving the risk of by-elections.

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