Fantastic Colonel

In Eastern Europe unusual quiet is a sure sign of political activity. Early last week the streets of Bucharest were still as a Puritan Sabbath. Shop fronts were steel-shuttered, cafes were deserted save for an occasional worried waiter, moodily wiping the empty table tops. Foreign correspondents, smelling trouble, gravitated toward the Bucharest telegraph office. It was closed, and not going to open. As the day advanced, groups of soldiers in steel helmets and khaki appeared on the street corners, leaning against lamp posts, smoking cigarets when their officers were not looking.

Alert correspondents soon learned the basic facts: the popular peasant government of energetic Prime Minister Juliu Maniu had successfully suppressed an attempted coup d'etat; 200 persons, most of them artillery officers, had been arrested; suspected regiments were confined to their barracks; strict censorship of the press, abolished by the Maniu government eight months ago, was instantly revived.

In spite of arrests and imprisonments, correspondents were unable to discover the individuals directly responsible for the attempted uprising. But it was easy to guess the responsible group.

In November 1928, the government of Vintila Bratianu, last of the Bratianu dictators who have ruled Rumania as a family property for 48 years (TIME, Nov. 19), was overthrown by Dr. Mania's Peasant Party. For months the Bratianus and the remains of their "Liberal" party have chafed, muttered, plotted, as one by one the holders of Bratianu sinecures were dismissed, Bratianu pensions were cancelled, the fleet of Government automobiles, purchased for Bratianu use, was sold.

A few weeks ago, active Prime Minister Maniu struck a vital blow at the remaining Bratianu power by decentralizing local administrations, cutting the influence of the Central Bucharest ministries, still Bratianu appointees, in rural Rumania.

Then came the attempted uprising. No one in the Maniu government, however, dared blame the Bratianu "Liberals" openly. Elected scapegoat was a little-known artillery colonel, one August Stojka. Though Bucharest newspapers dared print no comment on the uprising, its cause or effect, the following effusion was issued by Minister of the Interior Vaida-Voevod:

"Some civil agitators known for a long time to the authorities as men without scruple or worth, organized a ridiculous plot against the form of the state without causing the least disorder.

"Investigation of the conspiracy continued today. A certain August Stojka, a former Colonel of fantastic personality, hr.s been attempting for two months to create a Fascist organization.

"The authorities have known of the organization from the very first. Recently the chief of the organization called two night meetings to which members were asked to come armed. After such a proceeding had taken place in defiance of the law the authorities decided to arrest these persons."

Unmentioned in the official report was the fact that onetime Court Chamberlain General Angelescu, powerful Bratianu appointee, much more potent than "fantastic" Col. Stojka, was also arrested, imprisoned with Fantastic Stojka in the Jilavele military prison.

Feeling that the crisis was temporarily past. Prime Minister Maniu grandiloquently proffered his resignation late last week. It was promptly refused. More modestly, he sent urgent messages to Dowager Queen Marie at Castle Bled, Jugoslavia, where she has been attending the third accouchement of her daughter. Queen Marie of Jugoslavia (TIME, July 8), asking her to be so kind as to return to Bucharest with small King Mihai as soon as possible. A disquieting feature of the plot had been the discovery in Bucharest of papers signed, "In the name of His Majesty, King Carol." Peasant-Prime Minister Maniu feared that exiled, slack-chinned Carol, for all his promises not to interfere with Rumanian politics, had been misbehaving again. He was reported last week at Bled, only 250 miles from the Rumanian border. Elaborately explained as a visit to discuss with Queen Marie his son's education, it was generally thought to be connected with the squashed coup. Queen Marie lingered at Bled, took her time about returning with King Mihai to Bucharest.

Imaginative correspondents saw a possible Polish complication to the Rumanian plot in the bald statement, given out at Washington, that the Rumanian Minister to Poland, Carol Davila, had been transferred to Washington, and Rumanian Minister to the U. S., George Cretziano, transferred to Poland.