60 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

with advantage be differently allocated among them. Opponents
of this proposal urge that the reformed Cabinet would be liable
to reach decisions without taking into account the difficulties of
working them out in detail, and that the concentration of power
in a few hands may encourage dictatorial methods of Government.
The reader can profitably reserve his judgment until the various
Departments have been examined. For the question is not
simply,, shall there be ten or twenty Cabinet Ministers? The
smaller number would probably involve the plan of one Minister
of Defence, with the Army, Navy and Air Force subordinate to
him; an overhauling of the administration of Justice; and a
greater degree of "economic planning" under the control of a
Minister for Economic Development. Cabinet reform on these
lines is most likely to be supported by those who hope to see
increased Government activity in, say, economic or military
matters; for then the Cabinet must either be reformed or grow
unworkably large. Those who believe that economic matters are
best left to Private Enterprise will be less impressed by the need
for change. This illustrates a general truth about politics—that
problems of machinery of Government cannot be decided "on
their merits"; they must be decided with one eye on the economic
needs of the time. No one can compare a lawn-mower and a
sewing-machine "on their merits"—one muse first decide
whether one wants to cut the grass or make a dress.

Unofficial adaptations of the Constitution usually precede
any avowed reform, and the Cabinet has already devised two
methods of dealing with the increasing pressure of business. The
first is its Secretariat, which came into existence with the 1916
decision to keep minutes. A large staff looks after the Cabinet's
documents, prepares its business and collects information. The
Cabinet has thus lost some of the atmosphere of an informal
meeting and become more like a business committee. Secondly,
it is a regular practice to appoint Cabinet Committees consisting
of a few Ministers. There is a permanent Committee on financial
matters, and others may be set up to deal with problems on