"Take Him Away"

Aug. 23 would always be an important date in Rumania, no matter how the Communists tried to rewrite history. That day, three years ago, Hitler had 100,000 troops in Rumania and the country was in the grip of his closest foreign friend, Ion Antonescu.

On the Moldavian border, 180 miles northeast of Bucharest, Rumanian troops were exchanging shots with Russians. But suddenly the Rumanians turned their guns on the Germans, and Hitler's largely Rumanian-manned southern flank gave way to a Red Army romp. Behind the historic switch was an historic conversation--of the sort novelists spend agonized years trying to reconstruct. But this dialogue had been carefully recorded on a talking disc by a boyish, gadget-loving King, and seldom had the most imaginative of novelists equaled it. Last week, as Rumania celebrated the third anniversary of Aug. 23, TIME Correspondent Robert Low dug out the record, cabled:

A tall (6 ft. 3 in.), husky youngster, not quite 23 years old, paced the floor of his study in the Bucharest palace. Occasionally he stopped to finger the button which led to a concealed Dictaphone. His loose tweed jacket and baggy grey flannel trousers, his light colored eyes and curly brown hair, made him seem younger than he actually was. But he had made his first --and perhaps his last--big decision as King of Rumania. Now he was about to take the big gamble.

Finally came a long-awaited knock. Antonescu, elegant, overbearing in his uniform of self-appointed marshal and "conductor of Rumania," strode into the room. The young man pressed the Dictaphone button, and turned to face the visitor.

Antonescu: "Long live Your Majesty."

King Michael: "There is no time to lose. In spite of the representations I have made to you, you have brought the country to a situation from which only immediate cessation of hostilities and expulsion of the Germans can save it."

Antonescu: "You are mistaken."

King: "Please accustom yourself to addressing me correctly. What is this yoti?"

Antonescu: "You--Your Majesty--Your Majesty is nervous today."

King: "Yes, because when I called you this morning you treated me as a mere nothing [thumping the desk]. I do not permit you to take liberties with my person. Do you think I can permit you to usurp my prerogatives and simply look on like a fool while my country crumbles away?"

Antonescu: "And who is destroying it?"

King: "All of you. Yet when I call you, you have no time for the King of this country."

Antonescu: "I wish to tell you that you are mistaken if you think you can save the country by an armistice."

King: "I have not called you to ask your advice or for your opinion. The purpose for which I have called you is for you to transmit this telegram concerning the cessation of hostilities to the United Nations."

Antonescu: "Who composed it?"

King: "What does it matter to you? If you do not accept it, I shall send it myself."

Antonescu: "How can you imagine that the Marshal can betray his German allies and throw them into the arms of the Russians?"

King (shouting): "Who is doing the betraying, you or the Germans? Did you guarantee Germany's frontiers, or Germany Rumania's?"

Antonescu (loudly): "I am not deaf. Why are you shouting?"

King: "Yes, you are. Otherwise you would have heard the murmuring of the country. In short, Marshal, will you send the telegram or not?"

Antonescu: "No, in that form, no."

King: "How then?"

Antonescu: "I must contact Germany."

King: "What? Are we bargaining here, Mr. Antonescu?"

Antonescu: "Marshal Antonescu."

King: "Mr. Antonescu. For the four years you have been usurping my rights, you have had neither my confidence nor sympathy. For months I have been working with the opposition to save my country. You, I know, consider me a stupid, stammering child. My Rumanians will judge that. But if you consider me to be a traitor, you will be completely disillusioned. I am the King of my country and your King. I wish to save the country and [shouting and'thumping the table] nobody can prevent me."

Antonescu: "Your Majesty is young and inexperienced."

King: "You are wrong. Suffering is an experience."

Antonescu: "You cannot dispose of the country if. . . ."

King (interrupting): "I am the commander of the Army and my order has been given."

Antonescu (violently): "Given? What order? Does Your Majesty know that Your Majesty might lose the throne?"

King: "Are you threatening me? Do you think you have the power to order anyone any more? Here and from now on, I will make the decisions. You are under arrest."

The doors of the study were thrown open and several of the King's bodyguards rushed in with guns in their hands.

Antonescu (thundering): "What, I, the Marshal of the country? No."

King: "Nonsense. Take him away from here."

They took Antonescu away and locked him up in a vault where Michael's father, King Carol, used to keep his stamp collection.

--

The coup had been prepared by the King with the leaders of the three opposition parties: Juliu Maniu of the National Peasants, Constantin Bratianu of the National Liberals, and Titel Petrescu of the Socialists. The Communists, because of their small number (fewer than 2,000 in the entire country) and the fact that most of their leaders were still in prison, played only a minor role.

Jailed, Exiled, Dismissed. This week, very few of the original participants were at liberty to celebrate the coup's anniversary. Maniu was in prison, Bratianu under house detention, Petrescu under ominous attack in the Communist press. Most of the high-ranking Army officers were under arrest, in exile or dismissed from the Army.

Inside the gloomy igth Century concert hall across from the royal palace, the Cabinet, all high-ranking Communists, gathered to watch the King make one of his rare public appearances and hear Prime Minister Petru Groza make one of his frequent speeches. Dutifully, the Communist clique gave Groza a resounding welcome. But it was silent when the red plush doors of the royal box flew open and the King strode in. Erect, unsmiling, he sat alone in the huge box, listened impassively as Groza took credit for the coup himself and pointedly failed to mention even once the role played by Michael.

Said Groza: "We are moving forward to the elimination of the last traces of Fascism." He paused significantly. The implication became even clearer when Rumania's Communist Matriarch Ana Pauker swung her jutting chin around toward the royal box, and gave Michael a long, long stare.

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