RUMANIAN POLITICS

Evening Star, Issue 22882, 14 February 1938, Page 11

RUMANIAN POLITICS

A ROYAL DICTATORSHIP REVISION OF CONSTITUTION TEN-POINT PROGRAMME Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright ' LONDON, February 13. Messages from Bucharest state that King Carol presided over the Cabinet Council, which decided on a 10-point programme, including the following The appointment of committees to change the Constitution and local administration. The prohibition' of State municipal officials participating in politics. Suspension of autonomous universities. • ! The suppression of harmful publications, accompanied by an investigation into the origin of newspaper funds. The prohibition of near relatives of Cabinet Ministers holding Government posts. The maintenance of strict control on the use of Government motor cars. „ No new appointments will be made in the Civil service. The majority of these changes are aimed at ending the activities of the Iron Guards, many of whom are in official positions. Another decision permits Monsignor Cristea, as a patriarch of the Greek Church, to absolve the population from oaths of allegiance given to political parties. Priests blessing such oaths will be punished. This action is designed to free the peasants, constituting 80 per cent, of the population, from promises to vote for certain parties in elections, which have been given to political leaders. PARTY STRIFE. The Government officially states that it is revising the Constitution in order to meet the necessities of the moment, due to the hatred and strife of numerous parties. Finances and currency would be placed on a sound basis. All citizenships granted since the war would be examined justly, ami the departure of all foreign elements would be organised. Rumania would co-operate, with other countries largely populated by Jews in order to find them new homes. She would keep the peace with all her neighbours. The Bucharest correspondent of the ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ says that the new Government is a type of dictatorship that Europe has not yet seen. King Carol, like the late King Alexander of Yugoslavia, has forbidden 1 all party political activity, has abolished the Constitution and Parliament, has indicated that a new Constitution will be dictated, and has placed all power in the hands of the military, but he has persuaded many leading politicians, except the leaders of the Democratic Peasant Party, to lend their names to the new Government. They thus hope to rescue the country from the political and economic dangers at home and abroad into which it has been plunged by the seven weeks’ disastrpus rule of Dr Goga and M. Yuca. “ RUMANIAN CROMWELL.” The greatest interest attaches to the intentions of Dr Maniu, the iso-called Rumanian Cromwell, and the reactions of the Fascist leader (M. Codreanu) and the Iron Guard to the substitution of the Royal for Fascist dictatorship. Dr Maniu declares: The Goga Government was doomed to an early decease, and its successor at least has the merit of being the King’s personal regime, disregarding both the Constitution and all democratic principles. King Carol should have allowed me to form .a Cabinet instead of creating a conglomeration with 'the sole aim to trample national rights .underfoot, accompanied by corruption, the absence of reforms and contempt for Christian morality and national honour. Monsignor Cristea won’t last any longer than Dr Goga.” Monsignor Cristea’s strong anti-Semi-tism has damped the enthusiasm of the Jews at Dr Goga’s fall. The’ ‘ Daily Herald ’ asserts that King Carol is determined to crush the Fascist Iron Guard and to curb the growing power of its leader, M. Codreanu, which threatened to rival his own. King Carol, in order to accomplish,this, had also to destroy democratic government. REACTION IN ROME HOPES OF RAPPROCHEMENT DISAPPEAR LONDON, February 12. The Rome correspondent of the ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ says that the downfall of Dr Goga the hopes of an Italo-Rumanian rapprochement and the consequent isolation of Czechoslovakia have disappeared. The Berlin Press gives the impression that Dr Goga’s resignation, which greatly upset the Nazis, was the work of Jews. EXPULSION OF FOREIGNERS OVER 250 LAST WEEK. BUCHAREST, February 13. (Received February 14 at 1.30 p.m.) Altogether 254 foreigners, including an Englishman, Charles Farmer, have been expelled from Rumania during the past week.