WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 186, 9 May 1928, Page 10

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The Wellington idea appears to be that no war memorial at all is better than one not in the exactly right spot.

Prince Carol of Rumania, whom it is now proposed to deport from Britain, is a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, and first cousin once removed to King George. But for the fact that she renounced her right of succession to the throne of Britain on her marriage, ‘ Prince Carol’s mother, Queen Marie, would stand next in order of succession to the British throne immediately after the sons, daughters, and sisters of King George and their descendants. There is a touch of irony in the fact that, while the living Carol may be unceremoniously bundled out of Britain, his decease would involve a fairly prolonged period of Court mourning— a circumstance which seems to indicate that Britain attaches a higher value to him dead than alive.

The Rumanian peasants, whom Prince Carol apparently desires to inflame against the present Government of that country, constitute about 90 per cent, of its population. They are an ignorant and generally tractable lot, and -during the period that the Bratianu family have run Rumania’s affairs they voted solidly for the Government. It was in 1848 that the father of the late M. Bratianu led a successful rebellion against the Turks and secured Rumania’s independence, and since then that country has been officially first an independent principality and later a kingdom, though the cynics have asserted that it simply became a Bratianu estate, run by the Bratianus for the Bratianus. The Bratianus ran the elections very astutely, and a politician to be elected to the Legislature had practically to be appointed by them. The Bratianus controlled the banks, and when they were not Prime Ministers themselves the holders of that office are alleged to have been put in or tipped out at their pleasure. Since the death of M. lon Bratianu last November the Bratianu stock is said to have declined somewhat, his brother M. Vintila Bratianu not having entire command of the situation, and the peasants, as the news indicates, showing some signs of res"tiveness.

It has been asserted "that Bratianu influence prevailed upon Madame Lupescu, Prince Carol’s inamorata, to induce the Prince to sign away his right of succession to the throne, for this love-sick and neurotic Prince had long been an open critic of the Bratianus, and it was considered highly desirable to have him off the property. Ten years ago. at the age of 25, Prince Carol fell in love with a pretty Rumanian girl. Mademoiselle Zizi Zambrino, daughter of a General in the army, and promptly eloped with and married her. The Prince’s regiment was engaged against the Germans at the time, but this trifle was not allowed by him to interfere with his romance, even if his absence did involve a charge of desertion and a sentence of confinement in a military fortress for seventy-five days.

After the war the Prince made a tour of the world, and on his return was married, in March, 1921, to Princess Helen of Greece, a son, the present King Mihai of Rumania, being born to them in October of that year. The previous marriage to Miss Zambrino was annulled by Church and State. Even before his marriage to Princess Helen it was stated that Carol desired to renounce his rights of succession, and large sums were said to have been offered his morganatic wife to leave him. Late in 1919 a renunciation was reported, but the next year affairs were patched up, and Carol carried on as Crown Prince.

In November, 1925, Carol was sent off to London to represent his country at the funeral of his aunt the late Queen Alexandra. Instead of returning home to domesticity in Rumania, this susceptible Prince hurried off to Paris after the obsequies, and there met Madame Lupescu. In company with this lady he visited Milan, Turin, and Venice, his mother sending a special emissary to the latter city to halo the erring husband home. There was nothing doing, however, and a few weeks later Carol sent a communication to his father renouncing all his rights of succession, and. even ownership of the royal family. itself. Within twenty-four hours this renunciation was accepted by the late King Ferdinand, and on January 4, 1926, three bills, ratifying acceptance of the renunciation, providing- for a regency, and modifying the status of the royal family, were passed by the Rumanian Chamber of Deputies.

On July 20 of last year King Ferdinand died, and Prince Carol’s five-year-old son was proclaimed king, under a regency composed of Prince Nicholas, second son of King Ferdinand, the Patriarch of the Church, and the President of the Supreme Court Under his will Ferdinand left his private fortune, estimated at £14,000,000, to the boy king. Carol, however, was bequeathed about £SO,OOO in cash and stocks, so has enough money to keep him from the poor-house. At the .time of his father’s death, Carol was living at Neuilly, near Paris, not far from a villa occupied by bis divorced first wife. He had at’this time been separated for six months from Madame Lupescu, but that lady immediately reappeared on the scene, and was reported as urging him to return to Bukarest, and furthermore, to take her with him to reign as queen, lo this idea, indignant Rumanians retorted that the lady would be arrested before she got a hundred yards i - side the frontier. I urthermoie, according to the London Daily Mail, the Bratianu family, fcar “® " are stated to be trying to contiol the actions of the Rumanian loyal ladies far more than King Ferdinand ever did. It is charged that they will no allow either Queen Mane—mother of Prince Carol—or Princess Helen—-his wife to leave Rumania, fearing that tliev will join forces with the Prince, and make 3 a coup in Rumania, with the aid of the Peasants -ether tliev have a pretty kettle of fish on hand in this quarter of Europe and nobody, of course, knows- with whom Prince Carol will fall in love with next. PROPHECY FOR LOVERS. Spring will not walk the windy-ways Ever again, nor tread the sward As once, when she had Youth for lord. Spring will not gather sixty days Into the semblance of an hour. As once, with all the world in fiowei. Autumn will spread a bed of leaves, Myrtle and bay shall close above: And you shall sleep, and dream of love. —Gwen Clear, in the London Spectator.”