In 1938, John Phillips took a photo of the lady to the right as she stood in the doorway of a Romanian brothel and picked up a customer.
In 1938, Constantin Bratianu urged the creation of a government composed of leading political figures and technical experts, appointed by the king, which would temporaily suspend constitutional rights and govern by decree until political life had returned to normal. King Carol accepted, and Iuliu Maniu, leader of the National Peasant Party, refused to participate in such a government but agreed not to "cause difficulties" when the National Peasants were not called upon to form a government. All three men wanted to prevent a fascist coup which they believed would subordinate their country to Nazi Germany.
In 1938, when he called for suspension of the constitution, Bratianu was the leader of the old Liberal Party.
In February of 1938, King Carol inaugurated his royal dictatorship under a constitutional cover. He replaced the Goga government with an "advisory government" headed by the Patriarch Miron Cristea, including seven former Prime Ministers and Ion Antonescu as Minister of National Defense. King Carol went on to abolish the Constitution of 1923, replacing it with a new one based on corporatist principles and concentrating power in the hands of the king.
In 1938, John Phillips took a photo of Romanians marching in procession and giving the national salute.
In March 1938, King Carol decreed the dissolution of all political parties and groups, while promising that after a period of "calm" and "adaptation to the new circumstances", a law would be created setting forth the conditions under which political "associations" could form and operate. This effectively removed the Romanian Parliament from the political arena.
In April 1938, King Carol passed a on "the maintenance of order", which provided him with legal leeway to take action against the Iron Guard. The leaders of the Guard were arrested and given long terms in prison. Codreanu was sentened to 10 years hard labor for high treason, and large numbers of Guardists and sympathizers were rounded up and interned in concentration camps established for this purpose.
In November 1938, King Carol visited Germany. Hitler urged him to free the Guardists and form a Codreanu cabinet. When King Carol returned to Romania, Codreanu and 13 other Guardists were killed while "trying to escape".
In December 1938, the Front of National Renaissance was created as an means of involving the Romanian population in the government. The FNR operated on the principle of bureaucratic centralism, later popularized by the Romanian communist governments, in which policy decisions were made at the top and then passed down to the local units of the front. It promulgated "social harmony" and "national solidarity".
In 1938, the beloved Queen Marie died.
