Manoilescu Acquitted

A 2 a. m. the court martial sitting to try Mihail (Michael) Manoilescu, onetime Under-Secretary of Finance, for conspiring to place onetime Crown Prince Carol on the throne (TIME, Nov. 7, 21) returned a verdict of not guilty and the prisoner was discharged. Wild enthusiasm greeted the decision and M. Manoilescu was carried shoulder high from the court room in the Ministry of War at Bucharest, Rumanian capital.

General Alexandru Averescu, onetime (1920-22; 1926-27) Prime Minister, who helped to defend M. Manoilescue, testified that the late King Ferdinand saw Prince Carol in Paris last year and attempted to persuade him to abandon Magda Lupescu, his red-haired mistress, and conduct himself as the court wished. The Prince seemed willing, but made conditions. Whereupon the King angrily cried: "It is not for you to make conditions "but for me, the King, to do so!" Embittered at his son's attitude, the ailing Monarch returned to Bucharest. Soon afterwards, however, he admitted to General Averescu that Prince Carol would return sometime, but that it would not be an easy matter to arrange.

The onetime Premier then said that, while the Prince could not become King of Rumania, there was nothing unconstitutional in his becoming a Regent. Said he: "I know nobody who speaks of placing Carol on the throne. If I thought he was a conspirator in wishing to return to Rumania I would not defend him."

Immediately after the trial the Government promulgated a law, passed by both houses of Parliament, increasing the penalties for those attempting to overthrow the throne or government or in any way attempting to interfere with the constitutional rights of succession.