IN BUCHAREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 136, 10 June 1936, Page 9

IN BUCHAREST.

CITY OF SORROW.

THE COTROCENI PLATEAU.

CAROL'S DRAMATIC* RETURN.

(By CECIL W. LUSTY.)

Bucharest, the little Paris of gaiety and colour that is the capital of Rumania, has become a city of sorrow. Aβ reported in the cablegrams, 30 pereons were killed and 600 injured when a grandstand collapsed at Cotroeeni Plateau when King Carol was reviewing a parade of youth organisations in celebration of the sixth anniversary of his restoration to the throne. Cotroeeni Plateau, where the tragedy occurred, is in the suburbs of Bucharest, and is close to other l>eautiful parks and recreation grounds, adorned with palaces and lakes, such as the Jardin du Cismigiu and Pare Carol. It was originally the site of the famous Cotroeeni monastery, built in the eighteenth century after the fashion of the early-century Mogoehoaia monastery, but at Cotroeeni only the church remains to-day. The Royal Palace is situated at Cotroeeni, and to there it was that Carol hastened on his dramatic return to Rumania on June 6, 1930. The year 1930 ha 4 seen the time ripe for the return of Carol, who, by an edict of the Crown Council passed on January 4,1926, had renounced his accession to the Throne. The people had tired of the mixed politics, of the apparent failure of the Peasant-Nationalist Ministry, and of the Regency Government, and were ready for Carol, who, thanks to his democracy, has always been popular. Save for political generals the army was also devoted to His return, however, was fraught with considerable danger, and it was carefully engineered in secret by a faithful little group. How Carol Returned. Carol, who posed as the chauffeur of the Rumanian military attache in Paris, himself drove the motor car from the chateau near Nancy to Munich on June

5. The next morning—this time as the military attache with important papers ■—he started for Rumania in a French aeroplane, the pilot of which had no knowledge of his identity. Twice a forced landing was made, once when a leak developed in the petrol tank and again when the machine became exhausted of petrol. The second time he landed in the garden of a Rumanian peasant who demanded the sum of 1500 lei (about £2) for compensation. The Prince and hie pilot had only French currency, and this the peasant refused to accept. Fortunately, supporters of Carol had followed him by 'plane. Although Carol's expected arrival about 7 p.m. in Bucharest on June Q was kept a secret, a large crowd had gathered. First came the 9.30 p.m. air mail. The landing lights were switched off, but the crowd remained. The whirr of another machine was heard, flares were sent up and at 9.40 p.m. Carol was back amrag hie people. His first action was to proceed to Cotroeeni Palace, the residence of Queen Marie, who was, however, absent in Germany—and to telephone Premier Manui. Bucharest from an inconspicuous city has risen, Phoenix-like, from the war ashes of its German Calvary to be the pride of South-east Europe, and is the largest city between Budapest and Istanbul. Modern Bucharest but a million people, yet with its spacious boulevards, vast parks and garden-flanked homes it occupies an area as large as several more densely-populated European capitals. Once Gaiety—Now Sorrow. Bucharest has been • described as the "city of pleasure," and it certainly conveys an impression of revelry by night. The shops in its principal street, the Calea Victorei, are as attractive as any in the Rue de Rivoli, Paris; its cinemas and theatres are seemingly as numerous as those in Brussels' Rue de Neuve; and its modernistic hotels and structures are among the finest inEurope.

Through the streets stroll romantically attired officers in dashing uniforms side by side with peasants in Thracianold dress, and all the contrasting peoples of the Orient, for Bucharest is essentially cosmopolitan. Another striking contrast is found in the old portion of the city, where a shoemaker's premises may be indicated by a quaint device such as a lamb with a shoe in its mouth. And now gaiety has been replaced by sorrow.