RUMANIA: Comrade King

In front of the throne stood a young man with a slight paunch and the Soviet Order of Victory on his thickly beribboned chest; he was Michael Hohenzollern-Siegmaringen, King of Rumania. Before him sat a group of men in tail coats and white ties; they were His Majesty’s ministers, and most of them were Communists. The tableau was a remarkable manifestation of Communist elasticity. Young (26) Michael reigns in royal panoply over a state actually run by the Communists.

For two years, the puppet King has tried doggedly to curb the Communists, but he is their virtual prisoner in his gilt & gingerbread palace at Sinaia. Any contact between sovereign and subjects is rigorously discouraged by the Communists. His own two aunts are little better than Russian agents. His Speech from the Throne last week, at the opening of Rumania’s Parliament, was plainly dictated by Communist Petru Groza, the King’s first minister and Rumania’s real boss. “Friendship and cooperation in all fields with the U.S.S.R.,” read Michael, “remain the very basis of Rumanian foreign policy. Rumania will seek sincere cooperation with the nations respecting the independence, sovereignty and freedom of peoples.”

Newsmen reported that the King had been forced to delete a reference to cooperation with the U.S. and Britain. Michael’s effective resistance seemed just about over.