While the Tories schemed at Blackpool, Prime Minister Clement Attlee pumped new blood into his Labor Cabinet. He fired three ministers, promoted three bright juniors and brought in six new ones. Most notable changes:
Out went ailing, cantankerous War Minister Jack Lawson, aged Air Minister Viscount Stansgate, muddling Minister of Civil Aviation Lord Winster. Up went brilliant, young (36) Hector McNeil, Foreign Office Parliamentary Under Secretary, to be Minister of State; voluble Arthur Creech Jones, Colonial Office Parliamentary Under Secretary, became Colonial Minister.
Attlee also coordinated Army, Navy and Air under a new Ministry of Defense, headed by able former First Lord of the Admiralty A. V. Alexander.
But none of the shifts affected the ministries long under heaviest Tory attack—Fuel, Housing and Food. Attlee had just shifted personnel, was standing pat on policy.
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