It is sad that M. Titulescu is dead. No one
who ever met him in any of the odd quarters of Europe where you were liable to meet him will ever forget him. His duels with Count Apponyi at Geneva on the perennial " optants " question were Homeric, gaining in dramatic force from the contrast between the controversialists' oratorical weapons, the Rumanian favouring the rapier style and the venerable Hungarian the broadsword. The abiding picture was of Titulescu muffled up in a great-coat on a sweltering summer day begging that the window might be closed because of a courant d'air. He had constructive vision, and the Little Entente, of which he, as Foreign Minister of Rumania, and Dr. Beres were the main- stays, might, if adequately supported, have grown strong enough to consolidate Central Europe and frustrate Hitler's Plan of garotting his victims one by one. By the folly that has marked Rumanian diplomacy for years M. Titulescu was dropped from the Cabinet, after which he lived mainly in France. When he was last in London three or four years ago, M. Tatarescu being then in control of Rumanian foreign Policy, and was entertained at a private luncheon, the chair- man, a private Member named Winston Churchill, expressed the hope that " at no distant, date our distinguished guest may return to his native land and give them Tit for Tat."
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