Shuffle

Ernest Bevin, who for months had refused to resign as Foreign Secretary, quit last week on his 70th birthday, crippled by heart disease, asthma, piles. Attlee gave him another post: Lord Privy Seal, a Cabinet position with no specific duties and with a salary of -L-5,000 a year. Bevin will act as an elder statesman, advise his Cabinet colleagues on foreign affairs and labor problems.

Into Bevin's job of Foreign Secretary stepped Herbert Morrison (see box), who will also continue to be Deputy Prime Minister. Another of Morrison's posts, majority leader in the House of Commons, went to James Chuter Ede, 68, a teetotaling, non-smoking former schoolteacher. Ede will stay on as Home Secretary, a job he has done quietly and well since 1945. Viscount Addison, 81, Labor's leader in the House of Lords, will get a third Morrison post: Lord President of the Council.

The changes added no luster to a dim Cabinet, getting steadily dimmer. But they were, from Attlee's viewpoint, safe & sane. Cause for mild rejoicing: neither brilliant opportunist Hugh Dalton nor blatant opportunist Aneurin Bevan, both anti-U.S., got the Foreign Office.

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