RUMANIA: Magda & the Nahlin

Scapegrace King Carol was received at Maryborough House in London last week by discriminating Queen Mary who did not receive his henna-haired Jewish friend, Mme Magda Lupescu. After both Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had called upon His Majesty, King Carol announced with a keen sense of timing that he had just bought the $1,350,000 yacht Nahlin which was leased last year by King Edward VIII for his cruise with Mrs. Wallis Simpson. Said His Majesty: “She is a beautiful vessel, one of the most splendid afloat. I need relief sometimes from State duties, and can think of few more pleasant ways of recuperating one’s energies, or refreshing one’s brain.”

In Rumania, where the Royal Family have never been rated wealthy enough to keep a $1,350,000 yacht, much less buy one, His Majesty’s purchase of the Nahlin came last week as a crashing fact to back up years of rumor that “Mme Lupescu is the shrewdest money-maker in Rumania.” She is said to have got her working capital from people who wanted things wheedled out of Carol II, later was reported branching out into Bucharest real estate, finally to have large holdings in Rumania’s key industries, especially those to which the Government can throw contracts. Mme Lupescu for years was in mortal terror of assassination by Rumania’s anti-Semitic Iron Guard, more recently has been famed as its “largest contributor.” Last week this able junk-dealer’s daughter seemed on the point of realizing a majestic ambition: a second Nahlin cruise, this time with the world’s tabloids headlining Mme Lupescu.

King Carol finished up his London week by lunching, without Mme Lupescu, in Buckingham Palace with George VI & Queen Elizabeth.