Viorel Tilea

[1] Tilea published two works, entitled Rolul diplomației în politica de stat ("The role of diplomacy in state policy") and Acțiunea diplomatică a României ("Romanian diplomatic action"), eventually translated into German, Hungarian, Croatian, and Bulgarian.

[1] In October 1918, he joined the Romanian National Council, and was soon sent to Geneva, to meet Mr. Herron, an American writer, and friend of United States President Woodrow Wilson.

Whether Tilea was deliberately exaggerating the German threat to Romania as a way of gaining British support against the German demands to surrender the control of their oil industry, as claimed by the British historian D.C. Watt, or if the Romanians genuinely believed that they were about to be invaded by Germany in March 1939, as claimed by the American historian Gerhard Weinberg, is still unclear.

[3] In September 1940, a coalition of Horia Sima, leader of the Iron Guard, and General (later Marshal) Ion Antonescu had formed a National Legionary State in Romania, forcing King Carol II to abdicate in favour of his 19-year-old son Michael, who became a figurehead to the new fascist regime.

During that period, Tilea was recalled from his post in the Romanian embassy in London, but he decided to stay in England, requesting political asylum.

[4] In the meantime, Carol II fled to exile in Mexico, where he wrote to his second cousin George VI, hoping for British support for an overthrowing of the new government to return it to a monarchy.