RUMANIA'S QUEEN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 884, 9 December 1916, Page 6

RUMANIA'S QUEEN.

AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW.

"The Queen will sec you between 10 and 11," wrote the Lady-in-Waiting, "at the Palace Hospital." Only the day before this the Palace Hospital had been opened. All the ground floor, where the state rooms are, had been turned into wards for wounded, into 1

>athrooina, bandaging rooms, operating •ooms. Under the entrance archway hey were carrying in wounded on

.Hi. ~-,.. i'.L,i\ I.z.i Liii Lfi' UUMANIA, with H.R.H. PRINCESS ILEANA, her youngest daughter.

stretchers when I arrived (says Hamilton Fyfe, "Daily Mail" special correspondent in Rumania). In the hall of the palace was a working party, stitching hard at bed-shirts, dressing-gowns, and so on. Nurses in white, with their head-dress arranged like that which one sees in Frauce, passed frequently through. After a few minutes two of them came quickly towards me. One was the Lady-in-Wait-ing, whom 1 knew. The other was the Queen. She held her hand out. "How do you do?*' she said. "Let us sit down here.''

"Here" was a long in the hall, littered with needlework, books for the soldiers, packages of cigarettes. The Queen drew a chair up to it. The Lady-in-Warting retired. "Sit down, please," said the Queen. '' You must excuse our being in rather a muddle. You see we have only just started work." There was nothing to distinguish her from the other nurses, except, that across her forehead she worn an ermine bandean instead of linen. Yet. without that, even, I should have recognised her at once, for her portrait is to be seen in almost every house. It is customary to say of Queens that they are. beautiful. But the beauty of the Princess Marie, of Edinburgh, niece of King Edward, cousin to King George, was admitted and spoken about, long before she was a Queen. Fair-haired, with

blue-grey eyes which suggest the image of deep pools, now tranquil and smiling, now dimmed by passing clouds, now Hashing and piercing like the shafts of vivid light; with clearly cut, slightly aquiline profile, tender in repose, she has been from her girlhood marked not only by these charms of feature, but by that subtler, far less common quality, distinction. And as her mind and soul have developed, so that gift of distinction has become more and move noticeable. At 40 she is still a beautiful woman, and many say "more beautiful than ever," for the spirit that shines through the flesh has been tried in the fires of pain and of joy, has sounded the depths of life and drawn from them knowledge and sympathy and strength. Why She is Loved.

It is her understanding of life, her disregard of the mere trappings and suits of her great position, her quick intelligence and warm humanity that have won her the affection of the Rumanian people. I could see at once from her manner to me, a stranger (though at the same time, as she made me feel, a compatriot), why she was loved. To begin with, she is entirely free from any stiffness or self-conscious-ness, defects from which rovalty too often suffers. She has the happy knack of putting everyone immediately at ease. She shows the real woman in herself, and draws out the reality from others.' We talked first about the hospital. "I wanted to give them the whole place," she said, "but there would have been difficulties about carrying stretchers up the staircase, and then, "she added with a little laugh, "I suppose we must live somewhere. So we have kept our own private rooms."

I asked whether the women of Bucharest had come forward readily to help in Bed Cross work. "Splendidly "the Queen answered. "They don't mind how hard the work is."

''Here ,„ the palace," she went on I have no difficulties about gettinoanybody or anything I want. You ran understand that. But it isn't so in all hospitals. And our needs will increase as time slips by. We have got a wonderfully good medical service and Red Cross organisation, when you consider what a little country this is, only eWit milhon people. But we do want to*be guaranteed against any shortage in the future. We want surgeons, we want trained nurses, and we want all kinds of hospital stores. Do you think the "Daily Mail" can help us to get them? Of course, I know the needs of England herself are very heavy. Still, there may be some chance of finding helpers for us, too. And then America. They are so generous there, so ready to do ail they can to relieve suffering. lam sure they would come to the assistance of our brave wounded if thev were told how great the need is."

We were walking through the hospital. Every now and then the Q.ieen stopped to make some poor fellow more comfortable. "They are such fine poo pie, our peasants," she said. "So patient and uncomplaining. We ha: 1 one man very badly wounded in another hospital where T visit. As soon as he was settled in bed T asked him how ho f-'elt. 'Not very grand, your Ma jestv,' he me, 'but I don't care so lomr'as vou become Empress of all the Rumanians.' Of course, yon know how thev nil feel about their brothers in Trail sylvania. I feel with them, for I have become thoroughly Rumanian." Practical War View 1- . The p-oeess of "becoming thoroughly Rumanian" cannot hav been altogetli er pleasant for the young Princess? What sustained her all through the vears of storm and stress? Chiefly ler abundant vitality. Let her answer for herself. We were speaking of the fid, 1 hospitals at the front. "I want se much to go and see them," she said. "]

think they would like it. But I know that for the present at all events visitors are not wanted. Later on, J hope, for I feel that perhaps 1 might be able tOtoStimulate them, as [ did the workers in the cholera camp a few years ago. You see I am always in good spirits, and that helps me to cheer people up. I dare sfy it is the result of having such good health. I wasn't in the least afraid of i-.holrra. 1 never am afraid of anything in that way. 1 sup] o*e ] must be': fatalist. - ' Those who have read any of the Queen's books (the latest was published, with illustrations by Edniond Dulttc, a few months ago) know that there runs through her nature a strong vein of mysticism. Nearly all the chapters have lines from "Fiona Madeod" or Rabindranath Tagore to introduce them. How many Queens are familiar with these authors, 1 wonder? But her mysticism, her fatalism, have nothing in common with Oriental inaction. They are bound up with a notable practicality. She was eminently practical when she visited the cholera district. She is showing the same valuable and, I like to think, the spine British quality now. She is practical in her view of the war. and Rumania's share in it. Bloodshed and the hideous maiming of men, the tears of women, and the cry of orphaned babes move her to detestation, as they must every woman with a woman': heart. But she sec 1 - that there is no rend to peace save the one which the Allied nations are pursuing now. I have been told that since Rumania came into line, the Queen has s.ccmed relieved of a burden. One can caiiy understand this. King Ferdinand is a llohenzollern: she was an lOnglish prill cess. Kach of Them Ims become "thoroughly Rumanian," and, thinking only of Rumania 's good, never a shadow of antagonism came between them. But one can imagine the strain which each had to endure.