GIPSY KING

Grey River Argus, 20 August 1937, Page 4

GIPSY KING

Janus Kwiek. Civil war in the gipsy nation may result from the election ot a new king at Warsaw in July. The younger generation of gipsies are republican and do not want a selfappointed king. They insist that the nation needs reform and education, not a monarch. They are fed up, they say, with nomadic life and beggary. On the other hand, say his supporters, the new king's reign is to be quite eventful, and properly so, since he is the first king duly elected and crowned since the gipsies left Egypt. The election was held in the big Warsaw Stadium, to which about 20,000 paid an entrance fee To watch the complicated ceremony. Several hundred gipsies surrounded a small plain platform in the middle of the Arena. More had been expected to take part, but the authorities would not allow a bigger bathering, fearing clashes, since one gipsy was killed a few days earlier in a brawl between rival groups. Thirty Elders, representing many thousands from many countries, sat on the platform, clad in dinner jackets, white ties, and shiny tophats. Two .crimson-gowned pages guarded the Crown and Sceptre behind a gildled chair. Six pretenders to the Throne, all members of the powerful Kwiek clan, made long speeches to the Senators,

outlining their claims and their programmes if elected. , The Senators then took a ballot, which was unanimous; and thereupon proclaimed young Janus Kwiek, a Warsaw boilermaker, as King; The real power behind the Throne is believed to be Rudolf Kwiek, father-in-law of the late King Mathias, who told newspapermen: “I prefer to be dictator, power is sweeter than the Crown.” The Coronation ceremony was performed by four priests of the Orthodox Church, with music by the choir or Warsaw’s Russian Church. After that, the King seated himself on the gilded Throne and the Elders came and knelt before him and kissed his hand. A salute of twenty-one guns and a speech by the King concluded the ceremony. As befits a modern ruler, the King immediately held a Press conference. He told newspapermen that he would try to see Signor Mussolini at Rome to get his authorisation for a mass emigration by gipsies to Ethiopia. Janus’s first official act was to order beer for all his subjects present, invitations to the Coronation had been sent to the entire diplomatic corps in Warsaw, but only a few diplomats accepted.