WINDOWS OF THE WORLD

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 201, 25 August 1937, Page 14

WINDOWS OF THE WORLD

International Scenes and Affairs. : THE NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS.

DEATH IN EXILE.

RUSSIAN ENVOY. "ONLY CZAR CAN RECALL ME." BUCHAREST. Bucharest society has become poorer through the death of an interesting personality—Count Poklewski-Kosell, who represented the Czar at the Rumanian Court during the Great War, and remained an Imperial Ambassador until the day of his death. Count Poklewski repeatedly declan^l: "I have been placed in my position by his Majesty the Czar, Nicholas 11., and only the Czar or death can recall me from my post. . . Bucharest was the last capital where a Czarist Embassy remained in existence and on the door of the building there was still the proud inscription, "Imperial Russian Legation." Count Poklewski handed out Imperial Russian passports almost to the end of his life—to Russian exiles. Soviet Protests. The Soviets repeatedly made representations because of the existence of an Embassy of a no longer existent Court, but Rumanian gratitude to Czarist Russia was always great. After all, it was with Russian help that the two Danubian provinces, Moldavia and Wallachia, which until then were under Turkish sovereignty, established their independence as a result of the Turco-Russian war of 1877 and that the independent State of Rumania was born. For this reason the Government here did not interfere with the old Court, and the arms of the double-headed Russian eagle continued to remain on this Czarist Russian Legation in Bucharest. Count Poklewski, who was 70 years old when he died, remained the doyen of the Diplomatic Corps in Bucharest. Only- when the Russian Government recognised Soviet Russia two yeare ago did there seem a chance of a change. It was only some months ago, however, that the Count celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his diplomatic career, on which occasion King Carol 11. arranged a reception in the palace in honour of the aged diplomat. King Carol handed oyer to Count- Poklewski one of the highest Rumanian decorations with the words that the Count had no longer a Sovereign, and thus he (the Kin") thought it his duty to decorate the Minister for his services to his former .master. Count Poklewski was at one time Counsellor of the Russian Embassy in Ixradon, and had an important share in the conclusion of the Russo-British treaty of 1907. He also played an important role in bringing Rumania into the war on, the side of the Allies.