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2.

in Scotland.

What I have no doubt about is the blunder the Government
has made in filling up the vacant offices. What is the good of
kowtowing to the Simonites , who are indistinguishable from the
ordinary Tories, except that they are more reactionary, and who
would not exist for a moment in Parliament except by our permission?
I gather that the excessive attention paid to them was not
Ramsay's doing, but S.B's, who is apt to make a fetish of magnanimity.
But my real objection is to their second-rate ability. If
the National Government means anything, it should be a pooling of
the best talents. Scotland is going to be a very difficult post
in the near future, and Godfrey Collins, the Scottish Secretary,
is simply preposterous. Then I do not think that John Gilmour is in
the least the man for the Home Secretaryship. He is very honest,
but very slow, and for a Home Secretary you want above all things
a man with a quick mind, and preferably a lawyer. The one really
good appointment is Walter Elliot to Agriculture. Hore-Belisha as
Financial Secretary to the Treasury seems to have aroused great
indignation in my party. He has got a kind of minor Jewish cleverness,
but it does not go very deep and he is not liked.

But all this is a minor matter compared to the appalling
international situation. It would be hard to exaggerate the blundes
Simon has made. He combines all the demerits of every predecessor
and none of their merits. If all stories be true, his
tactlessness is beyond relief. My American friends distrust him
deeply, and our relations with America are the most vital issue