GREEK ARCHBISHOP

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 32, 8 February 1933, Page 8

GREEK ARCHBISHOP

yiSIT TO WELLINGTON

WAR DAYS IN RUMANIA

Sent' out to Australia and New Zealand by the Patriarch in Constantinople for -the purpose, of visiting' his flock, Archbishop .Timotheos, of . the Greek Orthodox Church, arrived at Wellington on Monday from Australia. He proposes to spend a week or two in Wellington, after which he will visit-the principal.centres in the Dominion before returning to Australia. _ The Archbishop speaks very little English and an interview, with a Post" representative' was given through an interpreter , Speaking on worldly , affairs. the W nfS^ P>ald that al °*g ™th the rest of the community the members of his church airover the world were sufdK W A h- 6 ? dverse e°°a°mic conditions but tins had not lessened their desire to seek spiritual relief. The depression m Australia, he said was fn DE°urope eSligib36 CoWe* ™tn' lit , For seventeen years Archbishop Timo- & • re£ esentea Hs church in T*£^™ He, comme nced his duties in the troublous days of the war. At the t lme Rumania was taken by tht flSrmans he was one of the many who were deported to Bulgaria. Among the etims were members of the clerey Judges, political leaders, mayors, and other.people of note. The period of de portation was fifteen months, and alhough the Germans did not ill.treat their prisoners they kept them under close observation. After his release the Archbishop returned to Bucharest Referring to the abdication of Kins Carol Archbishop Timotheos said that the allegation that Carol. abdicated because he was notlivirig in harmony with his wife was incorrect. ,His abdication was_ solely due to political troubles which w.ere not disclosed.' Since his .return to _the throne Carol and his family had been well. loved by. their countrymen, although, this:show of affection was really the outcome of the love the Rumanians held .for Carol's mother, Queen Marie. . The, Rumanian Government fs decision to. link up with the Allies during the war. was considered by the Rumanians to be due toMarie 'a influence and sound judgment. As a Tesult of the war, Rumania gained possession of Bessarabia • from Eussia Transylvania ,ana the Banat from Aus-tria-Hungary, and other territories. Thus the population of the country had increased from seven millions before the war to eighteen millions at the present time.