RUMANIA'S KING

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2878, 16 September 1916, Page 3

RUMANIA'S KING

HIE RULER 0F AN HISTORIC PEOPLE HIS QUEER HERITAGE The following is taken from an article in "Munsey's Magazine" by Svetozar Tonjoroff:—"The earliest civilised sovereign' of tho known as Ilumania was tho Roman Emperor Trajan, who invaded and conquered it in the first years of tho sccond century of tho Christian era. The latest is King Ferdinand of the' house of Hohenzollern-Sigmariiigen, a distant kinsman of the German Emperor, who succeeded to tho throno on October 10 on the death of his venerable uncle, King Carol I. In the intervening two thousand years a good many , things have happened to Rumania. Established by Trajan as a Roman colony under the designation of Dacia —pronounced Dah-chia by its people to-day —the country between the Danube and the Thoiss was overwhelmed by successive waves of invasion and conquest. Among the races whose hosts hare trampled the soil of the ancient Dacia are the Goths, the Huns, the Nogi Tatars, the Petchenegs, and the Turks. Each of these conquering races has left its stamp upon the Rumanian peppie as their neighbours know them in the present year of grace—or disgrace, if you prefer it so. Through all these crushing hazards of change, however, .the'- have remained Latins. Roman, the modern Rumanian calls himself —a Roman. His- language, despite a sprinkling of Slavic or Bulgarian and of Turkish, is Latin —perhaps the nearest _ approach to the sonorous tongue in 'which Cato persistently reminded the Senate that Carthage must be destroyed. His feelings are intensely Latin. His new King, despite the accidents of German birth and German training, earnestly tries to be as Latin as ho can. The King's son, the Crown Prince Carol, has succeeded in becoming a Latin. Hence his great popularity with the people upon the stem of whose throne he stands. When King Carol breathed his last amid the shadows of the Carpathian Mountains at Sinaia, lie left an iron crown and a grave problem to his nephew and successor. The crown and the problem were inseparable, as is often the caso with such bequests. The crown had been fashioned out of the base but indestructible metal taken from a Turkish cannon captured by the Rumanian soldiers at tho siego of Pleven, or Dlevna, in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. It is of heavy bulk —how heavy the new King has perhaps yet to discover. The problem ,was the outcome of the fact that, Transylvania was under the sovereignty of the Hungarian part of the dual empire. Transylvania, any ethnologist or politician in Bucharest will tell you, is inhabited by Rumanians in the ratio of two to olie Magyar or Szekler. This province, along with- the Bukowina, is apparently one of the objectives of tho Russian operations iii Austria-Hungary.

International Problems. ■ The first tiling that confronted .the new King,.even before tho last fluttering breath had left tho body in tho darkened chamber at Sinaia, was a vigorous demand from the war party for a declaration of hostilities against Austria-Hungary, in order to conquer and annex Transylvania and the Bukowina before the Russian bear should place a heavy paw upon the whole extent of those provinces. At this moment, however, tho situation was complicated by two (considerations, one personal and dynastic, the other international. The dynastic question arose out'of the fact that Ferdinand, as a Holienzollern of the Sigmaringen, or-non-regnat branch, could not regard lightly any proposal to plunge his country into hostilities -against- tho Hohenzollern who reigns in Berlin. Tho international consideration was based upon tho fact that alon" the southern bank of the Danube Rumania was facing a hostile Bulgaria eager for an opportunity to exact satisfaction for tho seizure by .King Carol and. his army of two thousand square miles of Bulgarian territory in the second Balkan war, -when Bulgaria was locked in a death-grapplo with tho combined forces of Serbia, Greece, Turkey, and Montenogro. Such was the enigma with which the logic of events confronted Ferdinand upon his accession to the throne which his uncle had occupied since 1866. Tho choice of peace or war lay largely 'in his hands. Which would lie choose? That was the question which the-world asked itself with lively interest. .

His reign began under circumstances widely different from those of his predecessor's accession. When. Karl— Latinised to Carol—of HohenzollernSigmaringon was called to Bucharest by vote of tho Rumanian Parliament, Prince John Alexander Cuza,, a Greco-Rumanian bovar, had just been compelled by force of arms to abandon the disastrous attempt to govern the two principalities of Wallacbia aiid Moldavia as . a united State,, after a long series of separate administrations under Greek or Rumania hospodars. The hospodars—tho title is derived from the Slavic' word gospodar, or master —were a series of viceroys, each of whom obtained his appointmentfrom the* suzerain at Constantinople by outbidding his rivals for the privilege as a speculation: and the results of such a, governmental system may readily imagined. : A Throne That Went A-begging.

Princc Carol was summoned to the, vacant throne in a determined attempt by the Rumanian people, long exploited, to place the realm beyond the sphere of native strivings and pretensions. Prince Carol, because of tho Sultan b opposition to his selection, had to travel to his capital disguised as a merchant. When he arrived as Domn or Lord or Rumania, he found the condition of the experimental principality hopelessly confused. Every department of tho i public service was in chaos. There were no roads, no justice, no comprehensive scheme of education. King ]) ordinandi on tho other hand, succeeds to sovereignty over a country where education, commerce, industry, and military organisation have attained a high level. Tho throne of Rumania, might well tempt any European prince; and yet thirty-five years ago the reversion to it went a-begging. Inasmuch as King Carol and his consort, Queen Elizabeth, better known as Carmen Sylvia, had lost their only child, a girl, at a tender ago, and it -appeared improbable that tnere would he a direct heir to tho tliianc, provision was made for the succession in the collateral line. Under a special article of the Rumanian constitution, King Carol's elder brother, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollem-Sigina-ringen, bccame heir apparent.. Prince Leouold, however, renounced his rights in favour of his oldest son, Prince Wilhelm, who in turn passed on the prospective royal heritage to his brother, the present King. When Prince Ferdinand arrived in Bucharest. as Crown Prince in 1889 lie devoted himself- zealously to tlie -task of acquiring the Rumanian language and point of view. He did not recant his Catholic I'aitb, but his son Carol, tho. present Crown Prince, was baptised into the national church —the Rumanian Orthodox. Thus complete fusion ueVvecn the dynasty and tho people was effected. The now King is a studious man of quiet tastes and a tremendous capacity for work. In his earlier years he spent a generous share of his time in )iis | study. Nevertheless, he has taken a lively interest in outdoor sports, and j is an expert rider.