He cut down
the membership from twenty-four to five, establishing a compact and
effective War Council whose sole task is to "win the war." He centred
more authority in the Premiership than the English system has ever known
before. He virtually became Dictator.
On the other hand, he raised the number of Ministers outside the Cabinet
from nineteen to twenty-eight. He scattered the coterie of lawyers who
had so long comprised the Government Trust and put in men with red blood
and proved achievement--in the main, self-made like himself. He
installed a trained and competent business man of the type of Sir Albert
Stanley, raised in the hard school of American transportation, as
President of the Board of Trade: he drafted a seasoned commercial
veteran like Lord Rhondda (D. A. Thomas), for President of the Local
Government Board: he raised his old and experienced aide, Dr.
Christopher Addison, to be Minister of Munitions: he made Lord Derby,
who had conducted the great recruiting campaign, Minister of War: he put
Sir Joseph Maclay, an extensive ship owner, into the post of Shipping
Controller. Everywhere he supplanted politicians with doers.
What was equally important he continued his role of Conciliator, for he
placated Labour by giving it a large representation and he took a
definite step toward the solution of the Irish problem by making Sir
Edward Carson First Lord of the Admiralty.
Even as he stood at what seemed the very pinnacle of his power Destiny
once more marked him for its own.
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