Another sphere in which reorganization and expansion were necessary was
that of home affairs. The period began with a reconstruction of the
administrative machinery at the centre. It had become increasingly
evident that the older system under which the supreme direction of the
war rested, with a Cabinet consisting of the departmental chiefs under
the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister, was not sufficiently prompt and
elastic for the conduct of a war which involved the mobilization and
direction of the resources not only of the United Kingdom but of the
British Empire. Even the formation of a smaller Cabinet committee of the
departmental Ministers chiefly concerned in the war did not meet the
needs of the case. With the advent of the new Government a modification
was introduced whereby the supreme direction of the war was intrusted to
a small War Cabinet, freed from all administrative duties, and yet in
the closest touch with all departmental Ministers, while administrative
responsibility was placed in the hands of Ministers who were left free
to devote their whole time to this aspect of Governmental work.
By this arrangement the War Cabinet was able to give all its attention
to the task of co-ordination and direction, and so make more effective
use of the immense resources which the empire had gradually produced
during the preceding years. It also made it easier to create a number of
much-needed new administrative departments. The most important of these
were the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of
Food, and the Ministry of Pensions, to which were added at later dates
the Ministry of Reconstruction, the Ministry of National Service, and
the Ministry of the Air. * * *