Carol Troubles

Increasingly pot-bellied King Carol of Rumania was last week back in Bucharest, his capital, after an eventful visit to Prague where he had discussed future policy towards Russia with Czechoslovakia's pro-French President Eduard Benes. To Prague also went Carol's 15-year-old son, rolypoly Crown Prince Mihai, for King Carol, suspecting that his former wife Princess Helen might return to Rumania in his absence and make trouble, was not taking the risk of leaving Mihai behind. So strongly did he feel about what he considered to be Princess Helen's capacity for mischief that in court circles it was said: "His Majesty is prepared to make financial sacrifices to keep her out of the country."

For Rumanian Carol's visit Czechoslovakian Prague was en fete. Triumphal arches had been erected in the main streets which were decorated with flags and evergreen. Prague's electric works reduced their rates by 35% to insure that the city's illuminations should blaze far into the night. Cardinal Kaspar, head of the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia, went so far as to permit his Czech flock to eat meat all day Friday. Nothing was lacking to make the reception the sort that Carol most enjoys. There were champagne banquets, boy scouts, a gala opera, hordes of game birds to be slaughtered. Carol graciously returned all these compliments by ordering machine guns for Rumania from the Czech Skoda Works, and with cheers ringing in his ears parted from President Benes with the cordiality of a long-lost brother.

The King's exuberance was soon damped on his return to Bucharest. Rumania's Fascist Iron Guard made it abundantly clear that they disapproved of his hobnobbing with President Benes whom they consider far too sympathetic toward Russia for their peace of mind. In a bold manifesto, the Iron Guard declared they "will not hesitate to shoot Carol down rather than fight for Bolshevism."

This was not the only bad news that greeted His Majesty's homecoming. There also awaited him a letter written by his mother Dowager Queen Marie to his divorced wife Princess Helen, which she in turn had sent to His Majesty. To Queen Marie's uncompromising letter, reputedly accusing her son of being "personally responsible for bad conditions in the country," Princess Helen reportedly added for King Carol's benefit the stinger: "This will show you what kind of a person you are and what your own mother thinks of you."

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