Speech from the Throne

With splendrous pomp and a majesty almost Byzantine, the common peasants who have recently arisen to dominate the Rumanian Government (TIME, Nov. 19) convoked a newly elected parliament, last week, and proceeded briskly to the business of the Realm.

Splendrous was the preliminary singing of a grand Te Deum in the National Cathedral at Bucharest, with the Patriarch of Rumania, bearded Miron Cristea, presiding in his twinkling medieval mitre. Lustily sang the new peasant Deputies and Senators, clad in immaculate white homespun blouses and white legging trousers. For them the Te Deum was a stately song of triumph. Good honest fellows--some could not forbear to skip a bit for joy as the procession moved from Cathedral to Parliament. There it was quickly seen how complete had been the triumph of Peasant Prime Minister Juliu Maniu at the Parliamentary elections completed last week. Of :he 376 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 561 are now held by Maniu peasants, whereas last year the now ousted Dictator Yintila Bratiano had 318. Today the fallen House of Bratiano, which had dominated Rumania since the creation of the Kingdom (1881), controls but 14 Chamber seats. Similarly in the new Senate, Prime Minister Juliu Maniu holds an overwhelming majority of 168 over the 36 followers of Dictator-Reject Vintila Bratiano.

Last week, tall, aristocratic, big-boned M. Bratiano sat as a mere Deputy, disconsolate, while a broad, confident peasant grin spread under the small, black moustache of M. Maniu. Just prior to the opening of Parliament, the black moustache brushed ever so lightly and reverently the hand of Her Majesty the Dowager Queen

Marie. Though she had no part in the ceremony, her motherly and grandmotherly heart could not be otherwise than quickening and aglow. The Speech from the Throne (of her six-year-old grandson King Mihai) was about to be read by Prince Nicholas of Rumania (her slightly weak-chinned 25-year-old son), thus opening the first freely-elected Parliament in the history of the Kingdom.

On the whole Prince Nicholas acquitted himself well. He spoke in his official capacity as one of the three Regents of Rumania, the other two being Patriarch Miron Cristea and Chief Justice G. Buzdugan, both aged gaffers. Reading in a loud, penetrating voice His Royal Highness declared from the Throne that the policy of Peasant Prime Minister Juliu Maniu will be sixfold:

First, to convert Rumania into a democracy of authentic, Anglo-Saxon stamp, retaining constitutional monarchy. Second, to accord to Rumania's national minorities a just and lawful share in government, whereas they have been exploited and oppressed. Third to debureaucratize and decentralize the Government, granting more authority to provinces and municipalities. Fourth, to reform the notoriously corrupt and unscrupulous Police, Gendarmerie and Secret Service. Fifth, to reconstruct the nation economically, providing broad measures of agricultural and industrial assistance. Sixth, to reverse the Bratiano policy of shutting out foreign capital, and rather welcome "peaceful penetration" of Rumania under appropriate and lenient restrictions.

While these promises will take at least a decade to perform, they are the most hopeful words officially spoken in Rumania since the War. They show, moreover, that the whole nation is solid in support of Boy King Mihai--or as Queen Marie calls him "Our Tender and Lovely Hope" (TIME, Nov. 26). Appropriately enough last week, King Mihai ignored his Parliament and played with trains--real trains. One locomotive with which he played was the first full-sized freight engine to be built entirely in Rumania. On the day after Parliament opened His Majesty was lifted into the cab of the freight monster--with Queen Marie watchfully present--and actually clutched and tugged at the throttle with sufficient force to open it and spin the giant driving wheels. Precocious and forthright, King Mihai said to the steam engineer: "At home I have a 'lectric train!"