BALKAN LEADERS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 200, 20 September 1916, Page 5

BALKAN LEADERS.

A writer in “Current Opinion” tor July says: "Among the statesmen of genius identified with Balkan politics, three stand out more conspicuously than the rest —M. Paschitch, the Servian; M. Venizelos, the Greek; and M, Take Jonescuj: the Roumanian. They are the grand trio of- the Balkans, united in friendship as in ideals;-, but tne events pf the past few months hav« brought M. Jonescu a renown denied for the moment to the others. He is not a talker merely, but aii actor in the world drama, a man who does things. His is the temperament which must shape events rather than he led by them. He may find himself for the moment in opposition, yet as chief of the conservative democracy of his native land and the most marked Roumanian personality on the-European scene, he is the hope of the Allies and the dread of the Germans. In Ro.*mania he is known intimately from one frontier to the other.. He is beyond all doubt the most popular living Balkan personage.. Everybody refers to him as ‘Take.’ The eloquence he dis plays in front of the largest audiences is that of ah orator born, and fully explains his popular title of ‘the goldenmouthed Take.’” M. Take Jonescu is said to be able to converse fluently in half-a-dozen languages. He is married to an English woman.