TALK WITH THE QUEEN OF RUMANIA
A REAL WOMAN
(By Hamilton Fyfo, in the "Daily Mail.")
"The Queen will see you between ten and eleven," wroto tho Lady-in-Wait-iiig, "at 1 ,tho Palaco Hospital." Only the day before this the Palaco Hospital had been opened. All tho ground floor, whero the state rooms arc, had been turned into wards for wounded, into bathrooms, bandaging rooms, operating rooms. Under tho entrance archway they were carrying in wounded on stretchers when I arrived. .
In tho hall of tho palaco was a working party, stitching Bard at bed-sliirfe, dressing-gowns, and so on. Nurses in white, with their head-dress arranged liko that which one sees in Franco, passed frequently through. After a few minutes two of them came quickly towards me. 'One was tho Lady-in-Waiting, whom I know.' The other was the Queen; She held her hand out. "How do you do?" she said. "Let us sit down here."
"Here" was a long table in tie liall, littered with needlework, bookß for the soldiers, packets of cigarettes. The Queen drew a chair -up to it. The Lady-in-Waiting retired. "Sit down, please," said the Queen. "You must excuse our being in rather a muddle. You see wo have only just startofl work." There was nothing to distinguish her from the other nurses, except that across her forehead she wore an ermino bandeaux instead of linen. Yet, without thatveven, I should have recognised her at once, for her portrait is to be seen in almost every house. It is customary to say of Queens that i£ey are beautiful. But the beauty' of the Princess Marie of Edinburgh, niece of King Edward, cousin to King Georgo, was admired and spoken about long before 6he was a Queen. Pair-haired, with blue-grey eyes which suggest the imago of deep pools, now tranquil and smiling, now dimmed by passing clouds, now flashing and pierciag like the shafts of vivid light; with clearly cut, slightly aquiline profile, tender in repose, she lias been from her girlhood markod not only by these charms of feature but by subtler, far less oofmon quality, distinction. And as her mind and soul have developed, so that gift of , distinction has become more and more noticeable. At forty she is still a beautiful woman, and many say "more beautiful than over," for the spirit that- shines through the flesh has been tried in the fires of pain and of joy, has sounded the depths of life and drawn from them knowledge and sympathy and strength. Why she is Loved. \ _It is her understanding of life, her disregard of the mere trappings and suits of her great position, her quick intelligence and warm humanity- that have won her the affection of the Rumanian people. X, could see N i-t once ■from her manner to me, a stranger (though at the same time, as she made me feel a compatriot), why sho was loved. To begin with, she is entirely free from any stiffness or iself-con-sciousness, defects from which royalty too often suffers. ■ She has the happy knack of putting everyone immediately at ease. She shows &he real woman in herself, and' draws out tho reality from others. , J
We talked first about the hospital. "I wanted to give .them the whole place/' sho said, "but there would have been difiioulties &bout carrying stretchers up.the l staircase/and then," she added with a little laugh, "I suppofio wo must live somewhere. So we have kept our own private rooms." I" asked whether the women of Bucharest had come forward readily to help in Red Cross work. "Splendidly," the Queen answered. "They don't mind how. hard the work is. • Here in the palace,'' she went on, "I have no difficulties' about getting anybody or anything I want.,,* You can understand that. But it isn't so in all Hospitals. And our needs vpil increase as time slips by. Wo have got a wonderfully good medical service and Eed Cross when you consider what a. Ufctle country this is, only eight million : people. But wo do want to he guaranteed against any shortage in the future. We want surgeons, we want trained nurses, and we want all kinds of hospital stores. Do yrt-i, think the 'Daily Mail' can help us to get them Of course, I know the needs of England ; herself are very heavy. Still, there may he some chance of fintfmg helpers for us too. And then America. They are so generous there, so ready to do all they can to relieve suffering. I am sure they would come to the assistance of (our hraye wounded! ; if 'thoy were told how great the need is." We weTo walking through the hospital. Every now and then the Queen stopped to make some poor fellow more comfortable. "They are such fine people, _ our peasants," she said. "So patient and uncomplaining. We had one man very badly wounded in another , hospital where I visit. As soon as he was settled in bed' I asked him how he felt. 'Not "very grand, your Majesty,' he told mo, 'but I don't care so long as you becomo Empress of all the Rumanians.' Of course, you know how they all feel about their brothors in Transylvania. I feel with them, for 1 have becomo thoroughly .Rumanian." Those who havo read any of tho Queen's books (the latest was published, with illustrations by Edmond Dulac, a few months ago) knows that thero runs through her nature a strong vein of mysticism. Nearly; all tho chapters havo lines from "Fiona Macleod" or Rabindraoiath Tagore to introduce them. How many Queens are familiar with-theso authors, I wonder! But her mysticism, hor fatalism, liavo nothing in common with Oriental inaction. They-are bound up with a notable practicality. She was ominently practical when she visited tho cholera district. She is showing tho samo valuable and, I like to think, tho sacie British quality now. ' , Slio is practical in bcr view i>f the war, and Rumania's share in it. Bloodshed and the' hideous maiming of men, tho'tears of women, and the cry _of orphaned babes move her to detestation as they must every women with a woman's heart. But sho sees that thero is no road to peace save the one which the Allied nations are pursuing now. I havo been told that since Rumania came into line the Queen has seemed relieved of a burden.. One can. easily understand this. King Ferdinand is a Hohenzollern. Sho was an English Princess. Each of thein has become "thoroughly Rumanian," and, thinking only of Rumania's good, never a shadow of antagonism came between them. But ono can imagine the strain .which each had to endure.
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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2960, 26 December 1916, Page 3
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1,110TALK WITH THE QUEEN OF RUMANIA Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2960, 26 December 1916, Page 3
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