Strong-Arm Election

Despatches from Bucharest announced that the long heralded Roumanian general elections resulted last week in a three to one government majority. Cables from non-Roumanian cities reported, as usual, that the Roumanian government had exercised the most inhuman violence against Opposition candidates, that at least one such candidate--a priest named Turco--had been killed by government supporters with the assistance of gendarmes. What occurred may be judged from an account cabled from Vienna by able New York Times correspondent Clarence Streit.*

Two days before the elections, Mr. Streit set out by motor from Bucharest with three electioneering Opposition candidates. Since the candidates entertained no hopes of being allowed to hold or address a meeting, they carried cards to be thrown among their constituents. As almost none of these constituents could read, the cards were imprinted with a circle: the emblem of the United National Peasant Parties It was hoped that if a sufficient number of cards could be distributed, the peasant voters might recognize the circle-symbol when they saw it again on their ballots.

According to Mr. Streit, the candidates with whom he motored were stopped every few miles by gendarmes, who were "always armed with rifles and equipped like soldiers." The usual procedure during these halts was for the gendarmes to point their rifles at the driver-candidate while he slowly edged his car forward, the other two candidates meanwhile shouting at and arguing with the gendarmes, who eventually grounded their rifles and allowed the car to pass.

*Expelled from Roumania last week because the authorities at Bucharest deemed his despatches "insulting to the Crown and Government." Numerous U. S. newspapers rallied to the Times, joined the New York World in editorially flaying the Roumanian Administration as "a government which uses the King as a dupe (TIME, Feb. 15), flimflams a Crown Prince out of his throne (TIME, Jan. 11), strong-arms elections and rules for the exclusive benefit of a reactionary minority."