ROYAL INTRIGUE

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1931, Page 8

ROYAL INTRIGUE

LUPESCU LOVE EXILE. NOT TO EMBARRASS CAROL. GAVE HIM THIS PROMISE. PARIS, August 29. “My sister has made a vow that she will not go back to Rumania until • ■ i presence in that country will in no way embarras King Carol.” This was the emphatic statement of Irma Lupescu, sister of the tithe haired Magda, for the love of whom Carol once gave up throne and family Irma Lupescu, who came to Paris t<’ see the International Colonial Exposition, indignantly denied reports that her sister had returned to »Bucliare»t several months ago, and was there playing a role similar to the one held by Madame de Pompadour at $ ihe Court of Louis XIV.

“Magda has been in seclusion in Switzerland,” she said. “When King Carol judged the moment had come to take possession of the ;throne, they made a pact that she yrould.not stand in his way to a peaceful and orderly reign She has kept her promise faithfully, although it is costing her a gooddeal to stay away from parents and friends.

'“Tliere is no man who can say honestly thaft he has seen Magda in Bucharest since the return of King Carol,” went on Miss Lupescu, referr- ’ ing to dispatches (that there was a connection between the departure of Princess Helen, the. King’s divorced wife, and reports that Carol was building a sumptuous villa on the Bucharest Champs-Elysees for the lady who shared his exile with him in Franco and Belgium. “But,” she added, “nobody kows what the future may bring,” STORIES THAT DIFFER, Miss Lupescu was asked whether tin idyll between the King and her sister had come definitely to an end, “I cannot tell,” she replied. “All 1 can say under the circminstances is that Magda has been extremely downcast and despondent since the separation. She felt when King Carol left on Ilia flight to gain his father’s throne that the great romance of her life had come to a close. She knows ftli t it is the woman who pays in such cases, and that she would ta doomed to live in foreign countries perhaps the rest of her life.”

“Their love,” she said,'.“is the one great experience of their lives. How can they forget it? They have loved each other ever since they were mere children, you might say Magda was married when she was very young to an infantry officer She met Caro 1 one night at a ball given at the Military Club, and the King, then only the Crown Prince, fell in love with 1 e.r. The rest of the story is known to every body.”

Miss Lupescu Omitted to say that he ■ sister had been divorced already from a lieutenant at 'the time of the ball and that she ran away from her husband with a colonel m the Air Force, who in turn was (to bow before a super ior officer when Crown Prince Carol fell in love with Magda. The Rumanian detective, Georges Diaconescu, who was charged by his Government to keep a diligent watch over the sweethearts during their sojourn in Paris, has an entirely different story. He maintains that on orders from higher up h'g ivestigated Magda Lupescu’s career from chi di.ood and found that she was a well-known personage in Bucharest military circles This information he was charged to convey to Carol, in Paris, on behalf o. the Queen Dowager, , but the Prince would not listen to him.

‘‘Nobody has ever advanced a satisfacoryj explanation for the Kings infatuation with Madame Lupesou,” said the detective, who lost his job when Carol returned to Rumania, and who dares not show his face in Bucharest now .'that Carol is King. ‘‘She is not beautiful, her teeth are uneven, she is fat and has thick ank.es, and is not over intelligent. King Carol could have, had his pick of the greatest beauties of Rumania. Dozens were sent to him by the Government with the definite mission to lure him away from Magda Lupescu. They trial their best, but lie turned a cold should er on them all and sent them packing back to Bucharest.”

King Carol, it is intimated in Rumania circles, seems to have given up La Lupescu definitely. The unsett e rl politiou;l condition of his country would not permit him to bring back the golden haired Jewish girl without causing a wave of indignation to threaten his newly-won throne. Popular sentiment in the royal love triang’e is all < n the side of Princess Helen', Ijis divoiced wife,- who has led an exemp'ary life, devoting herself exc'usively to the education of her son, during the years of the King’s absence. Princess Helen did not leave the court because of a new gorgeous brunette Cynthia Dimitrescu, with' whom Carol takes frequent motor tries in the pine forests that surround his capita! city.