Otto's Majesty

"During the past seven years through which my Government has held office, I have been obliged to answer the Parliamentary question now before me thirty-five times. I shall now answer it once more."

Thus spoke Prime Minister Count Stephen Bethlen de Bethlen, last week, in Hungary's great Gothic House of Parliament beside the Danube at Budapest. The Count, an inflexible and secretive dictator, had just been asked how he proposes eventually to fill the now vacant Throne of Hungary, a "Kingless Kingdom" ruled at present by His Serene Highness the Governor of the Kingdom, Admiral Nicholas Horthy de Nagybanya. The question before Count Bethlen loomed as particularly opportune, because last week, the Archduke Otto of Habsburg, legitimate heir to the Throne, eldest son of the late Austro-Hungarian Emperor and King Karl, reached his age of majority--16.

Anyone who believes in the Divine Right of Kings--and surprisingly many Hungarians still do--knows that it is now Count Bethlen's pious duty to hail Archduke Otto as the Apostolic King of Hungary. But last week the Count-Dictator merely said: "For the thirty-sixth time I answer this question by declaring that when a King again sits upon the Throne of Hungary it will be solely by the action and consent of Parliament."

For the present. Parliament dare not take such action, due to the continued pressure of France and Britain--Great Powers which desire that the fervent, excitable patriots of defeated Hungary shall not have a King to rally round.

"Little Otto" held, last week, his first "Royal Levee" at the old palace in Lequeitio, Spain, where he has been reared by his mother, ex-Empress and Queen Zita (TIME, Jan. 24, 1927). Well known is the fact that sympathetic, generous King Alfonso XIII of Spain contributes to the support of young "King Otto."