The Minister of Reconstruction
The changes in the Government announced last week transfer Lord Woolton from the Ministry of Food to the new office of Minister of Reconstruction, and bring Mr. Willink, a Conservative back-bencher who has quickly made a mark in the House of Commons to the Ministry of Health, whence Mr. Ernest Brown goes to be Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. It was a happy inspiration to seek a Minister of Reconstruction in Lord Woolton. At the Ministry of Food he has not merely been a brilliant organiser, establishing a smoothly-running machine for the complicated task of arranging the country's food, but has applied a cdnstructive poncy in providing the nation with a well-balanced scientific diet. He may almost be said to have turned rationing into a means of
far-reaching social reform. The qualities which have made him so successful a Minister .of Food seem likely to be those which we need in the sphere of reconstruction. He will be in the War Cabinet, ,,and that is essential if he is to act with full authority, He would scarcely have accepted the job unless he had been promised facilities for making a success of it. He has the immense task of co-ordinating or initiating plans aiming at what the Prime Minister has called "food, work, and homes for all." Obviously, he will have to work closely with existing Departments, among them the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Health, the Office of Works, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Food, and the Board of Education. Where exactly his duties begin and end is not yet made clear, and much doubtless will depend on his own conception of them, and on his success in carrying the War Cabinet with him and getting active co-operation from the Departments. The opportunity is one which will tax even Lord Woolton's energy and talent to the full.
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