WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 86, 6 January 1926, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The situation in Rumania, as near as we can diagnose it, is that the Queen of Rumania writes novels and the Crown Prince lives ’em.

Away back in 1919, Prince Carol of Rumania sent a letter to his Royal sire renouncing his right of succession to the throne, placing his sword at his country’s service, and asking for permission to serve in the army. The full text of the letter, which was dated August 1, 1919, was published in the London “Times” three weeks later, together with an announcement that the King of Rumania had laid it before the Rumanian Council of Ministers, who had accepted it and proclaimed Prince Nicholas heir to the throne. There the car. tain fell for two months, until Colonel Avion, on the staff of Prince Nicholas, then a student at Eton College, lifted it with an official announcement that there had been no renunciation at all.

So far as one can make head or tail of the situation one infers that the Crown Prince of Rumania when feeling out of sorts throws his coronet on the floor and threatens to stamp on it, upon which his royal papa and mama and the Council of Ministers and everybody who is anybody in Rumania rush about in a panic and promise anything on earth if his serenity will only carry on. This time it would appear that the royal family has become tired of the performance, and the renunciation haa been «c. cepted, and the Prince, according to Lady Drummond-Hay, is very angry indeed about the base ingratitude of everybody. That is' one version of the latest crash in kingship, but the various newspapers provide about half a dozen others.

According to .all accounts the real ruler of Rumania is Queen, Marie, her consort, King Frederick, being what the heralds call the Royal. Cipher. Queen Marie is a daughter of the lite Duke of Edinburgh, a grand-daughter of the late Queen Victoria, and first cousin to King George. She is a lady of ■ literary tastes with sevenl novels to her credit, thus carrying en the literary tradition set by her predecessor on the throne, Queen Elizabeth of Rumania, who was widely known under her nen-name of Carmtn Svlva. Queen Marie is, however, a strong-minded ladv with pronounced views on the divine right of kings to rale, and her speciality is match-mak-ing.

Some years back Prince Carol disgraced himself in his mother’s eyes by his mesalliance at Odessa w.th Mlle. Cecilia Lambrino, but this v.as made a wash-out by reason of the princeling’s neglect of canonical and statutory requirements and formalities. Then his royal mama married him off to Princess Helene of Greece, and later on married her daughter, Princess Elizabeth, to the then Crown Prince of Greece, making a double love-knot between the two countres. This lady had a brief reign on the throne of Greece, but the inevitable revolution came along and the Greek royalty packed its trunks and fled. However, in the meantime Queen Marie had married a young daughter to King Alexander of Serbia, and was in a fair way to becoming the godmother of the Balkans,

More recently there were rumeurs in circulation that Princess Ileana of Rumania was being brought to the notice of the British Royal Family as a highly desirable bride for the Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales does .not appear to have committed limself to more than an expression of opinion that Princess Ileana is . “a jolly little kid.” Queen Marie is also said to have hinted to the Pdes that it wo.uld be a nice thing if Poland—now a republic—were to accept her Hohenzollern husband ns king, and Her Majesty, failing :he Prince of Wales as a bridegroom for Princess Ileana, is credited by the veracious American correspondents—who dig so freely and irreverently into the preoccupations of royalty— as being favourably disposed towaris King Boris of Bulgaria as husband for her remaining daughter.

Kingship is a risky'business in these days, particularly in Eastern Europe, and King Boris seems by no means torr firmly seated in the saddle. His father, ex-King Ferdinand, is discreetly in retirement in Germany, with an enormous, fortune, and seems to find it pleasanter than waiting to be assassinated in' Sofia. The young ex-Shah of Persia also' finds it pleasanter to have the use of his legs in the cabarets of Paris than, to have them blown off in Teheran, which fate is alleged to have befallen his successor.

Yesterday's reference to the Samoan hurricane of 1889 recalls the Interesting fact that in the trouble in Samoa in that year British and United States forces fought side by side for the first time Of the political effects of the hurricane itself, Robert Louis Stevcneon had this to say: “Tims in what seemed the very article of war, and within the duration of a single day, the sword arm of each of the two angry Powers was broken; their formidable ships reduced to junk; their disciplined hundreds to a horde of castaways, fed with difficulty, and the fear of whose misconduct marred the sleep of their com. manders. Both paused aghast; both had time to recoirnise that not the whole Samoan Archipelago was worth tiie loss in men and costlv ships already suffered. The so-railed hurricane’ of March 16 tn ide thus a .marking epoch in world history ; directly and at once it brought about the conpress and treaty of Berlin; indirectly and bv a process still continuing it founded the modern naw of tlie States; Coming vears and other historians will declare the influence of that.” Emil Angier, a French dramatist, was acutely sensitive to the verdict of the public. During a performance of one of Augier’s plays, Dumas spied a mnh fast asleep in ’ the front row of the stalls. This was too good a joke to be lost, so he dragged the unfortunate author into the 'wings and pointed out the culprit, remarking that slumber is an opinion like any other. Angier was deeplv mortified; but imagine his joy when’ he was able to turn the tables next week. It was at the same theatre, and here again was a man fast asleep In the first row of stalls; but this time the play was by Dumas. What ar. cpportunitv for paying off old scores! But Dumas never turned a hair when he beheld the sleeper. “Oh, that,” he answered carelessly, “that’s the fellow who slept all through your play, and he has not waked, up' yet I”

LIFE. A little work, a little play To keep us going—and so, good-day! A little warmth, a little light Of love’s bestowing—and so, goodnight 1 A little fun to match the sorrow Of each day’s growing—and so, goodniorrow! A little trust that when we d<e We reap our sowing! And so, goodbye I f-JPiSom the Fierutk i®<