RUMANIA'S ROYALTIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 16

RUMANIA'S ROYALTIES.

CAROL AND HIS MOTHER. AX ACCUSATORY LETTER. VIENNA. King Carol 11. wants his mother, dowager Queen Marie, to lep-ve Rumania because of a new quarrel between them, Balkan diplomatic circles raport. The cause of the reported quarrel was said to be a letter accusing Carol of responsibility for "bad conditions in the country." The Queen-mother wrote the letter, it was said, to Carol's fromer wife, Princess Helen, who was reported to have sent the letter on to the King. Accounts reaching here said that Premier George Tatarescu was especially worried over the affair, but thus far had been unsuccessful in effecting a reconciliation. The alleged letter charged things in Rumania were going badly and blamed Carol for his asserted policies of splitting Rumanian political parties so that there were now more than thirty. Other allegations were that there was fcn apparent growing enmity between politicians who before often met socially and that animosities also were growing among the people. Helen was reported to have relayed the letter to the monarch "in order to show Carol what kind of a person he is, and what his own mother thinks of him." The incident was said to have created a tense atmosphere at court, with Carol refusing to hear anything about his. mother and demanding that she live abroad'. Queen Marie's Efforts Vain. Ever since King Carol came to the throne six years ago, Queen Marie has spared no efforts to remove Magda Lupescu, the King's favourite, from her influential position in the palace, and bring about a reconciliation between Carol and his divorced wife. In 1934, Queen Marie was even said to have gone to the late King George V. of England in a vain effort to have him invite Carol and Helen to the wedding of his son, the Duke of Kent, thus bringing about a meeting and hoped-for reconciliation. Marie was said to have told King George that a monarchy with a bad king was better than no king at all. From her self-imposed exile in Yugoslavia, Marie bombarded' her son with letters warning her son not to put lime. Lupescu's love above his dynasty. Failing here, she returned to Rumania and supported the efforts of former Premier Julius Maniu to banish Mme. Lupescu from the country. She also enlisted Queen Marie of Yugoslavia and Prince Paul," chief regent of that country, in bringing pressure to bear on the monarch to renounce Mme. Lupescu and either marry a royal princess or return to his former wife. Carol, however, was willing to have the divorce annulled and have Princess Helen return as his wife, but only if his. favourite , stayed in the country. Princess Helen refused to be reconciled unless Mme. Lupescu were expelled from Rumania for ever. In recent years the outlawed Iron Guard has made many attacks on Jews in Rumania under the pretext that their influence was growing under the tutelage of Mme. Lupescu, who is Jewish. Crown Prince Michael is known to be in sympathy with his mother, and is said to have taken no pains'to hide his dislike for Mme. Lupescu. ~