DONS & BROTHERS

THE new Labor Cabinet is divided between party veterans who still call each other "brother" and are belligerently proud of not being university men, and a group of donnish types with dazzling academic credits. The dons seem to predominate. Like Harold Wilson himself, five top Cabinet members took firsts at Oxford, and several of them have had teaching experience. Leading appointments so far:

George Brown, 50, Minister of Economic Affairs. The son of a truck driver, he began his political career at the age of eight by distributing Labor leaflets, put in a few years as a clerk and fur salesman before he turned to a career in trade unions and the Labor Party. He served as deputy leader under Wilson, his former rival for the top job. Easily emotional, Brown has been known to embarrass his colleagues and the public; Britons have not forgotten his display on television after the murder of John F. Kennedy, when tearfully he kept calling the dead President "Jack." But Brown has a marked instinct for survival, plus vision, drive and authority.

James Callaghan, 52, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is the son of a chief petty officer in the Royal Navy, entered it himself as an ordinary seaman in the war, rose to lieutenant. He joined the civil service in 1929 as a tax collector. Next to Wilson, "Stoker Jim" Callaghan is the party's most skilled parliamentary debater, and though virtually self-taught in economics, he has a sound grasp of world finance. He has shown he can work well in tandem with Wilson, who plainly expects to be pretty much his own Chancellor.

Patrick Gordon Walker, 57, Foreign Secretary. One of the original staunch supporters of the late Labor Party chief Hugh Gaitskell, he has since loyally followed Wilson. The son of a judge, Gordon Walker was a history tutor at Christ Church, Oxford, for nine years, and, in the opinion of one observer, "could be mistaken for a Tory." The only member of Wilson's Cabinet to have held senior rank in the last Labor government, Gordon Walker is regarded as a bridge-figure between the academic and union sides of the Labor Party. He was the first Secretary of State to visit all Commonwealth countries.

Dennis Healey, 47, Defense Minister. Regarded as "an intellectual first and a politician second," he went to Oxford on a scholarship, was briefly involved with the extreme left, but is now considered notably pro-U.S. "Anti-Americanism," he says, "is a disgrace to Socialism and a danger to peace." Healey is thought by some of his colleagues to be too theoretical, but he has made a strong impression abroad with his deft performances at international conferences.

Lord Gardiner, 64, Lord Chancellor. Respected even by Tories as "the Prince of Lawyers," and noted for ruthless cross-examination in court, Gardiner has successfully defended such diverse cases as D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (obscenity) and Randolph Churchill (libel). He is a dedicated crusader against capital punishment. Son of a British shipping magnate and a German baroness, he is an unlikely Laborite who served for a time in the Coldstream Guards. As a young man he was so elegant and ennuied that his friends organized a group known as S.R.G.G.H. (Society for the Ruffling of Gerald Gardiner's Hair).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.