GYPSIES’ KING CROWNED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 44, 22 February 1939, Page 2

GYPSIES’ KING CROWNED

The gypsies of Europe numbering 8,000,000, elected their new king, James Kwiek, in Warsaw recently. . Delegates represented the other states of Europe. The king was chosen from among five candidates of whom four belonged •o the family of Kwiek, being descenders of the late king, and there was one dranger, Anthony Cecierski. With the peatest solmnity 18 senators dressed in • uallowtailed coats and top hats took heir place in the arena of the Warsaw stadium. Each senator cast his vote into the urn, and the result was the unanimous acclamation of James Kwiek as king. Clad in a mantle trimmed with uimine (borrowed from the stage requisites o2 the Warsaw theatre) with scepter in his hand the king was crooned by Metropolitan Bishop Jcodorowicz, with all the ceremony of the Orthodox Greek Church, to which most gypsies belong. The Bishop gave an address concluding with the admonition to keep

faith with the Republic of Poland which has allowed the election of the king of gypsies to take place in its capital, thereby granting an honour to the whole nation. King James then took his seat on the throne (also lent by the theatre) and 21 shots were fired in his honour. The ceremony ended with gypsy music and dances and a procession round the stadium. The king made a short speech in which he said that his first act would be to send a delegation to Signor Benito Mussolini asking him to grant territory in Ethiopia to gypsies for settlement. Second a delegation is to be sent to the J.eague of Nations asking for a seat an?ong the League members. Third, he would try to send gypsy children in Poland to the primary schools that they might grow up useful and effectual citizens. The gypsies, it is said, arc tired of leading a nomadic life and wish to