Not that the recent appointments are in themselves un- welcome
to the House. Mr. Burgin is much respected as a Minister and it is generally agreed that he is admirably fitted to inaugurate this Ministry of Supply. Captain Euan Wallace, again, will bring to the Ministry of Transport a note of modest gaiety which may well have a rejuvenating effect upon that glum department. Captain Crookshank is worthy of more spectacular promotion, while Captain Peake has for long been regarded as one of the most solid and persuasive of Government supporters. It will be agree- able also to have Captain McEwen among the whips, since his Etonian manners will contribute to this harassed, and sometimes acid, organism, a wholesome alkaline ingredient. Such disappointment as still exists is due to the fact that the House expected a new deal, but was given the same old cards in a different order. The Prime Minister, it is felt by some, resembles those poker players who always play for _a flush in the vain hope that it may turn out to be a royal straight. Such players dislike the presence of too many court cards in their hand; the asymmetry of a full house is distasteful to them; the picture of four aces strikes them as ostentatious and even vulgar; and the very concep- tion of a Joker is to them un-English or worse. What they really like are the eight and six of hearts. This love of the monochrome often blinds them to the fact that their opponents are playing, if not "strip-poker," then at least that variety of. the game which is known to me as "Self- ridge," and under which every knave becomes a joker for the purpose of the round.
* *
Previous page
