Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Post Office. – in the House of Commons at on 21 February 1940.
Mr Neville Chamberlain
, Birmingham, Edgbaston
Censorship of Press articles in this country is on a voluntary and not a compulsory basis. In the present instance certain passages in the article written by the late Secretary of State for War were considered unsuitable for publication over his name, not because they were themselves objectionable but because he was so recently a member of the War Cabinet that in dealing with this critical subject, his views might well be regarded abroad as having special authority. Accordingly my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary called the attention of my right hon. Friend to the passages in question and asked that they might be altered, at the same time offering an alternative draft. This draft however did not appear to my right hon. Friend to convey the views he had in mind and he preferred to omit altogether the passages to which the Foreign Secretary had taken exception. The answer to the last part of the Question by the hon. Member for East Wolverhampton (Mr. Mander) is in the negative.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
