Staying Put

The mutterings among the Tories were heard and noted. Winston Churchill rumbled into a meeting of Conservative backbenchers one day last week to answer the hints that he should bow out as Prime Minister (TIME, June 30). Well, he was not budging. Whenever his mind or health becomes inadequate for the task, said the 77-year-old P.M., he would pass the job to someone else--but at this hour, his mind and body are not complaining. Nobody got up to challenge him; he is still master.

By what 10 Downing Street took pains to say was coincidence, Churchill then announced a slight reshuffling in the upper level of his cabinet, to balance the weights of office and to step up efficiency. While keeping the Foreign Secretaryship, Anthony Eden will also take on some economic duties heretofore handled by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler, who has been overloaded with work. It meant no big change in government operations, but Eden, still the heir apparent to Churchill, would get some needed background in domestic affairs. No sooner had this change been made than a hitch developed. The Foreign Secretary came down with jaundice, and the Foreign Office announced he would have to restrict his activities "for a number of weeks."

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