EXILED AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 7, 10 January 1938, Page 9

EXILED AGAIN

MADAME LUPESCU

FUGITIVE FROM RUMANIA

'COUNTRY FIRST"

United Pre.-t AtMH'latloi.—Bj ttlectitc Tdeernpli -CoDjrlght.) (Received January 10, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, January 9. "Yes, I am a fugitive and have been exiled again," said Madame Lupescu, friend of King Carol of Rumania, in an exclusive interview with a correspondent of "The People" in Paris. "I left Rumania," she added, "because I put the country first My associa-

tion with King Carol had been made an issue at the elections and I was bound to take notice of the result. I told the King that I was ready to go. He was unwilling, but I insisted."

! Rumanians have long resented the presence of Madame Lupescu, the redhaired friend of King Carol. Her presence became a political issue. Members of the Fascist Iron Guard swore to remove her, by assassination if necessary. The powerful Peasant Party, led by M. Maniu, declared that she must leave the country. It was reported recently that no newspaper in Rumania would print her name and that no book which mentioned her would be permitted .to circulate in the country. Her Jewish origin (her father's name was Wolf, but hen mother was a Catholic) has been the! thing principally held against her, also the belief that she maintained a powerful political machine of her own and had considerable influence over King Carol.

The King's relationship with Madame Lupescu began in 1926 when he renounced his rights of succession to the throne of Rumania and went to live in Venice with her. His dramatic return to Rumania in 1930, when he was proclaimed King, has been attributed to her influence. In 1936 she was reported to have been secretly married to a high Rumanian official but to have continued living at the palace in Bucharest.

Madame Lupescu, who is 44 years old. is declared to be a woman of more , than average intelligence and to have displayed an unusually keen political sense. She has maintained her own espionage service in every party in Rumania. A few days ago it was reported that the Prime Minister, Dr. Goga, had informed Madame Lupescu that it would be better if she left the country. Six years ago a Geneva report declared that she had been forced to leave Rumania for her own safety and was living quietly in France or Switzerland.