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Why Did No Member of Government Repudiate Cuza’s Attack on League of Nations Press Demands: Even Min

December 17, 1931
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Most of the papers are annoyed that the attack made by Professor Cuza on the League of Nations and his avowal of adherence to Hitler were allowed to pass without repudiation by any of the Government spokesmen. Immediately after the conciliatory message of the king, calling for collaboration between all citizens, of whatever religion or racial origin, they say, we get this violent speech by Professor Cuza, and the strange thing is that it draws lively applause from the Deputies of the Government Party, and not a single Minister thinks it worth while to get up and say that the Government condemns such views.

The “Viitcrul”, the official organ of the Liberal Party, writes, (M. Duca, the leader of the Party, a former Minister of the Interior and of Foreign Affairs, stated in Parliament after Professor Cuza’s previous speech – in the elections the Liberal Party concluded a cartel with the followers of the present Government. The disillusionment which the Party has suffered at the hands of this Government compels us to declare now that we have decided to end this pact and to adopt an attitude of sharp opposition to the Government).

We regard it as an impossible state of affairs that Parliament should permit such abuse of the League of Nations and of the ethnic minorities in our country. And on top of that we have this abuse applauded from the ranks of the majority Party, cheering the Hitlerist policy which is based upon a revision of the Peace Treaties, and the unleashing of civil war. Does not the Government know that such a manifestation at this present time of distress and danger on the other side of the frontiers is doing a great deal of harm, and is provoking agitation inside the country, in which our king, in his message, says that we must have peace and order?

The “Lupta” says that there is a great deal of comment in political quarters at the fact that Cuza was not repudiated from the Government benches, especially that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Chica, did not think it necessary to make a statement. Even the Minister of Finance, M. Argetoianu, was silent, the paper points out, when Cuza attacked the French Adviser to the Roumanian National Bank, M. Auboin, alleging that his work was only to protect the interests of Jewish finance.

A member of the Government Party who was asked why he had not interrupted Cuza to show that he was not in agreement with him, said: The fact that Cuza was not interrupted by Jorga, or any other Minister, seemed to us a hint that we, too, should keep quiet, the paper relates.

The Democratic “Adeverul” writes: At a time when the German Prime Minister denounces Hitlerism as an anarchical movement and Hitler demands the revision of the Peace Treaties, and of the frontiers, our Foreign Minister, M. Chica, sits listening quietly to a speech lauding Hitler and Hitlerism, and our Prime Minister, Professor Jorga, thinks it is right to get up in public and to congratulate and wish success to the representative of Hitlerism as he did a few days ago in Parliament. If the Government goes on with its shuttlecock policy between Cuza and the League of Nations, it must not be surprised if it continues to meet with as little success in Europe, inclusive of Germany, as it has met with till-now.

When the present Government came into office, the “Adeverul” recalls, its purpose was defined by the Minister of the Interior, M. Argetoianu, as the suppression of extremism, right and left. And now Cuza speaks in Parliament as if he were the leader of the majority Party. When Parliament opened he found himself as senior member appointed President of the first formal sitting of the Chamber, and now he is applauded by the Government as if he were their leader. We expected that the old enmity between Cuza and Jorga would make it impossible for these two men ever to work together. We seem to have been mistaken. It is impossible to tell beforehand when Jorga is going to make it up with anyone or to quarrel with him.

The “Dreptatea”, the organ of the National Peasants Party, also has something to say of the Cuza speech, describing Cuza as Hitler’s representative in Roumania.

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