RUMANIAN INTRIGUES

Evening Star, Issue 22954, 11 May 1938, Page 1

RUMANIAN INTRIGUES

CAROL AND HIS RED-HAIRED JEWESS A POWER BEHIND THE THROWN Behind the coup against pro-Germans in Rumania lurks the curious and disturbing alliance between King Carol and his beautiful, red-haired Jewish mistress, Madame. Lupescu. It is not long since a plot was unearthed to blow up the King, members of the and Madame Lupescu. It petered out when Colonel Precnp,' once the king’s most devoted ally, who piloted the aeroplane which brought the dethroned Carol back from exile and to the throne, was arrested by the king’s personal orders on leaving the palace after a stormy audience. The force behind that plot was _ the Iron Guard, the pro-German Fascist Party . The impending disaster was ■ discovered in the nick of time. But the struggle between the two conflicting powers—Rumania’s Madame Pompadour, red-haired Magda Lupescu, and the fanatical young leader of the Iron Guard, Corneliu Codreanu —has gone on. ...

The first reports of the plot said that the officers’ purpose 1 had been “ merely ” to do away with Madame Lupescu. Madame Lupescu was second on the Iron Guard’s black list, which was headed by the Prime Minister, Duca. He duly met his fate. He was shot dead on the platform of the Sinaia railway station. , Murder—long known to be; a political weapon in the Balkans—had started Codreanu on his career. Barely 17, he penetrated into the office of Prefect Maneiu,in lasi, at the time when that official was decrying the ultra,-Na-tionaliat and anti-Semitic demonstrations of university students, and killed him with three revolver shots. A jury,, influenced by unrestricted Nationalist propaganda, acquitted young Codreanu, who was turned into a national hero. ,

Endowed with exceptional powers of organisation and a fanatical belief in the supremacy of the Rumanian nation, Codreanu established first the “ Arch-angel Michael- League,” which he later transformed into the redoubtable Iron Guard. Organised on the lines of Fascist troops, the Iron Guard is to-day the. most formidable, power in Rumania, and it will survive the effort being made to suppress it, Cordreanu is no orator, but he holds his audience spellbound on the rare occasions when he speaks. His trick is to mount upon the platform and gaze' at the audience for a few silent moments with his large, feverishly glowing dark eyes. When he begins to speak in a curiously harsh, toneless voice, his words have a quality of eonvictioji: and f: naticism that carry hisaudience away. It has brought the Iron Guards hundreds of thousands of followers. GREATEST ENEMY.

Such is the man who is the greatest enemy of Madame Lupescu and who has now been arrested. As events have shown, he has not hesitated to use the most unscrupulous means of doing away with “ Rumania’s evil spirit.” Madame Lupescu received hundreds of menacing letters. Anonymous correspondents threatened to take her life unless she agreed to break for good with Carol, and the known fact that the Iron Guard, the formidable Codreanu, was behind them added weighs to their threats.

Few people know that the liaison was deliberately engineered by politicians. The story goes far back, to the time of Carol’s first and morganatic marriage with the celebrated Zizi Lambrino.

It happened in 1918, when Carol, the young Crown Prince of the realm which was then almost entirely occupied by German troops, fell in love with the gay, beautiful 17-year-old daughter of Colonel Lambrino. Carol was so infatuated that at the Rumanian Court they feared another Mayerlihg tragedy. Instead of shooting himself, however, Carol took his lady-love to Odessa and was clandestinely married to her in an Orthodox Church.

Of course, there was a scandal. Carol and his morganatic wife went to Paris. No threats and no promises could induce him to be separated from Zizi, who soon bore him a son. When the health of King Ferdinand began to fail, however, the concentrated efforts of his family and of the politicians at last succeeded in persuading him to agree to a divorce. Zizi Lambrino received a handsome annuity in return for her consent to renounce the name of Hohenzollern, which legally she would have been entitled to bear, and for the promise of not letting her son know that he would one day have the right to bear another name than that of Carol Lambrino. REASONS OF STATE. It was a cruel blow to Carol, but he bowed to reasons of State, and in due course married Princess Elena of Greece. In spite of the birth of a son, which filled loyal hearts in Rumania with joy, the marriage was unhappy. Carol is, or was, of a characteristically gay, buoyant, laughter-loving nature, and Zizi was the same. Elena was cool, aloof, always on her dignity. The two types clashed. Soon Bucharest whispered that Crown Prince Carol kept away from his wife as often as he could. He visited provincial garrisons with unprecedented zeal, only to be able to stay away from Bucharest and Elena. He sought the society of other women. Such was the situation when Crown Prince Carol received the official mission to attend the funeral of Dowager Queen Alexandra in London. At that time it was whispered in Bucharest that the Crown Prince was infatuated with a petite, lively, slightly freckled, auburn-haired yonngMivorcee, Madame Magda Lupescu. Her husband had been a major in the Rumanian army. Magda Lupescu had the reputation of being the best-dressed woman in Bucharest —a city where many women dress well—and nobody had ever seen her serious. She was another of the laughter-loving, gay young people whose company the Crown Prince enjoyed after the frosty dignity of his, home. INTEREST IN POLITICS. But Carol had begun to take an active interest in politics, too. His father, King Ferdinand, was already gravely ill, and Carol began to prepare

himself actively for his future duties. His opinions clashed with those of tho all-powerful Jonel Bratianu, who was) the unopposed political leader of Rumania at the time. "Bratianu feared trouble for Rumania if Carol came into power. He deliberately plotted to geij the Crown Prince out of the way. So, on his return from London, stopping at Paris for a short sojourn, Carol encountered Madame Magda Lupescu at an official reception at the Rumanian Legation. And Jonel Bratianu, the old Balkan diplomat, had a good deal to do with her being there. This unexpected meeting kindled Carol’s interest in Magda Lupescu to a flame of passion. Influences were brought to bear upon him which soon settled his decision of renouncing the throne and staying, in Paris with Madame Lupescu. This was how the second Royal romance, which proved so troublesome foil Rumania, began. Life in Paris was not so simple foil Carol and Magda. Zizi Lambrino also lived there, and she was naturally indignant that another woman should have attained what she had been obliged to renounce. . j

LAMBRINO'S SPIES. In her diary. Madame Lupescu “ I was/obliged to send away the 'cook and the footman at short notice. JQ discovered they werespying on us, and reported daily to ,Zizi Lambrino all that happened in our house. I have also found out that someone had been trying to persuade this cook to poison our food.” ■ *

The events that followed are well known. -Crown Prince Carol renounced his claims to the throne. After the death of King Ferdinand Carol’s son* the little Prince Michael, was crowned King of Rumania, with a Regent governing op his behalf. ‘ Then caine Carol’s, unexpected return to Rumania. He was restored to the throne on the understanding that he would have nothing unore to do with Madame Lupescu. An attempt was made at a reconciliation betwfeen Carol and Elena, but it failed, and a divorce was arranged. There was some talk of another Royal marriage for, Carol,) but there was an obstacle that could not be overcome aubum-haired, laughterloving Magda Lupescu. • ■ ' It is open war between the con- , sumptive, fanatical peasant-boy. Cornelia Zelea Codreanu, and Magda Lupescu. Codreanu has the masses behind him. Magda is backed by the King. The issue is still doubtful.