Labor's Week

Square-jawed Stanley Baldwin in a billowing grey ulster and a bullet-hard bowler hat motored to Windsor Castle early last week to kiss the King's hand, resign as Prime Minister of Great Britain. Waiting at the palace door to receive him was the King's equerry and grouse-shooting friend, Col. Sir Clive Wigram, and King George's favorite grandchild, little Princess Elizabeth, soberly staring over the top of her perambulator. Stanley Baldwin bowed solemnly to "P'incess Lilybet," who continued to stare, and entered the palace. For half an hour he remained closeted with the King, who was still in bed. When he emerged, Prime Minister Baldwin no longer, but the Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin, M. P., Princess Elizabeth was still being trundled in the driveway. Stanley Baldwin, M. P., drove away. The rest of the week was Labor's.

Wednesday. Following Stanley Baldwin's retirement. Ramsay James MacDonald went to Windsor, umbrella in hand, obedient to a royal summons, and accepted the King's command to form a new government. King George was out of bed and sitting up to receive him, but little Princess Elizabeth was noticeably absent.

Thursday. A crowd stood waiting in front of No. 10 Downing St., official town residence for Britain's Prime Ministers, where Ramsay MacDonald was busily conferring with acid-tongued Philip Snowden, financial genius of the Labor party, and James Henry Thomas, General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, over final Cabinet appointments.

"We want Mac!" shouted voices in the crowd. "Good old Mac!"

Good old Mac eventually appeared, smiling, hair tousled. Later it was announced that Finance Expert Snowden was to be the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Union Worker Thomas was to receive the medieval title of Lord Privy Seal, to be charged with the most important of Labor's problems: solving unemployment.

Friday. The retiring Tory Cabinet drove to Windsor, handed over their seals of office to the King-Emperor. At the same time Prime Minister MacDonald published an official list of members of the new Labor Cabinet.

Writing of choosing the new Cabinet in Forward, British Labor weekly, Ramsay MacDonald said: "Then will come the unhappy days when for the merit I should like to reward I can find no places vacant, for all those I can fit in I cannot always find the appropriate place. May I be judged sympathetically.

"He who has to leave out is even more pained in his heart than those left out. Sympathy is a bad Cabinet maker."

Laborites not left out included:

Rt. Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury

Rt. Hon. James Henry Thomas Lord Privy Seal

Lord Parmoor Lord President of the Council

Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Sankey Lord High Chancellor

Rt. Hon. Philip Snowden Chancellor of the Exchequer

Rt. Hon. Robert Clynes Secretary of State for Home Affairs

Rt. Hon. Arthur Henderson Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Rt. Hon. Sidney Webb Secretary of State for Dominions and Colonies

Rt. Hon. Tom Shaw Secretary of State for War

Capt. William Wedgwood Benn Secretary of State for India

Rt. Hon. William Adamson Secretary of State for Scotland

Lord Thomson Secretary of State for Air

Albert Victor Alexander First Lord of the Admiralty

Rt. Hon. William Graham President, Board of Trade

Arthur Greenwood Minister of Health

Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Philips Trevelyan President, Board of Education

Rt. Hon. Noel Buxtpn Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries

Miss Margaret Grace Bondfield Minister of Labor

George Lansbury First Commissioner of Works

Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

In London, it was rumored that one of the first moves of the Labor Government would be to recommend Sidney Webb, famed Fabian economist, now Secretary of State for the Colonies & Dominions, for the Peerage.

Saturday. Sitting side by side in shiny silk hats the members of England's Labor Cabinet drove through Windsor High Street, up Castle Hill to the royal palace. White horses pulled them, they sat in semi-state landaus with black-coated, silver-buttoned postillions and gentlemen outriders. In the fifth carriage sat grey-haired Miss Margaret Grace Bondfield, "Saint Maggie" to British Laborites, in a black straw hat, white blouse, long black coat Britain's first woman Cabinet Minister. This pompous ride was the apex of a career that began nearly forty years ago in a steaming London sweatshop.

At Windsor Castle the new Labor Ministers were received in the audience room. King George, nearly recovered from his recent setback (TIME, June 10), was dressed and on his feet for the ceremony. One by one the Ministers went forward to kiss the King's hand, receive from him their official seals of office. Chancellor of the Exchequer, lame Philip Snowden, hobbled on two canes.

Back to Windsor station went, with their golden seals, the Labor Cabinet. Lord High Chancellor Sir John Sankey was quite weighed down with the Great Seal.

"Everything went off smoothly," said Prime Minister MacDonald at the station. ''My colleagues and I were highly pleased to see how well the King looked."

Sunday. With the convening of a new Parliament only a fortnight away, Prime Minister MacDonald spent the day with advisers working on the Speech from the Throne. The address, actually written by the Prime Minister, which the King reads on the opening of Parliament, sets forth Government's plans for the future.

Tuesday. In the gardens behind No. 10 Downing St., Prime Minister Baldwin and his Cabinet assembled, chatted pleasantly on harmless subjects for the benefit of "talkies." The MacDonald trip to the U. S., within two months, seemed a step more certain.