(3 of 4)
On reaching the Royal Palace General Antonescu began a series of showdown sessions with His Majesty which left both of them scarcely a wink of sleep for 48 hours. It is hard to pry an obstinate king in the prime of life off even a shaky throne, and Red Dog, between irate sessions with His Majesty, conferred with Rumanian leaders of all parties and groups —Peasant, Liberal and Iron Guard—as well as with the diplomatic representatives of Hitler and Mussolini. The German Minister conferred with the Russian Minister. Stress tugged at counter-stress, hypocrite smiled on hypocrite, the mob howled.
Red Dog coaxed the King to give up his powers as dictator and vest them in Red Dog. This was the decisive step. Next night Dictator General Antonescu wore down the worried monarch further, and at 3 a.m. demanded in writing his abdication in favor of Crown Prince Mihai, a nice-looking boy just right to be a puppet. His Majesty signed away his throne two hours later.
By breakfast time Rumania surged with a brief boundless relief. In the streets people of all classes, rich and poor, in uniforms, business suits and peasant costumes, fraternized, openly rejoicing. They felt as if something big had been accomplished. They rejoiced when Red Dog begged the new King's mother, Princess Helen (divorced and in exile), to return from Dresden. Actually the situation in Rumania remained close to political and strategic chaos.
Before & After. During the whole agonizing abdication crisis Hungarian troops, led by Regent Horthy on a white charger, were slowly moving into Transylvania. Tens of thousands of Rumanian peasants were being shunted to new homes. They and their chickens and ducks overflowed Rumanian railway cars so tightly jammed that most of the human and animal freight got in & out of windows instead of doors. Small bands of Rumanian soldiers and petty officers announced they would resist the Hungarians by waging guerrilla warfare in the Carpathians, but none of these bands caused the occupying Hungarian forces much trouble.
In Bucharest there was a carnival of arresting "grafters." Former premiers, former ministers, rich men and almost anyone who ever had anything to do with a Government contract were locked up. It was radiorated that $11,000,000 had been found in a secret Government fund. New York Timesman Eugen Kovacs discovered that Berlin by no means regards the Iron Guard as its trusty agent. "German circles are more inclined toward General Antonescu than [toward] the Iron Guard," cabled Kovacs, declaring the Guard is badly split by personal rivalries within itself. Red Dog declined to form a new Cabinet of Iron Guard ministers, as the Guard had demanded, jogged along into this week with the same Cabinet which had served Carol.