The highly respectable George V was still reigning then, and the times were quieter. One could afford the luxury of worrying about Madame Lupescu.

Now Carol is in London as a guest of George VI. Accompanying him is the heir Mihai, a lively boy of 17 in a military uniform and epaulettes. There’s also the foreign minister Petrescu-Comnen and several notables. Everyone is amazed that Carol has brought neither the minister of finance nor the minister of trade with him, because it was known in advance that, apart from improving Carol’s prestige, the primary purpose of the visit was ‘metallic’: if not a loan, then at least some British investments in Rumania (particularly in port construction in Constanta), export credits, and the expansion of Anglo-Rumanian trade. But Grigorcea (the Rumanian ambassador in London) gave me the following explanation yesterday: the king just wants to explore whether any basis exists for the realization of these plans and, if it does, to agree in principle. The experts will come later to negotiate the details. We shall see what will come of it all. Frankly speaking, I’m rather sceptical.

Carol was received very much in the same style as the Belgian king last year. A red-carpet welcome in Dover and at Victoria Station, a ceremonial procession from Victoria to Buckingham Palace, a state banquet for 180 guests in the palace yesterday, a ‘levee’ for the diplomatic corps in the palace this morning, where Carol and the heir greeted all the ambassadors and envoys, a ceremonial lunch with the lord mayor, dinner with the royal couple in the Rumanian mission, and a reception for 700 guests in the palace. For tomorrow, dinner in the Foreign Office and an air show.

Not everything was the same as last year, however. The speeches given by the kings at the state banquet were more vacuous and politically insubstantial. Neither Churchill nor Lloyd George nor Eden was present at the banquet. Chamberlain is obviously getting his own back! And another thing: the attitude of the royal family, and particularly of the king and queen, towards me and Agniya as representatives of the USSR was much more hostile, detached and strained. It’s natural: the crisis of capitalism has advanced one step further.