"My thoughts are always near you. I am inconsolable at being so far, incapable of helping you, living in the memory of the past with no hope for the future...Never doubt the boundlessness of my devotion". In her reply, Marie wrote back to declare her sadness at "so much unsaid, which would so lighten my heart to say: all my longing, all my sadness, all the dear memories which flood into my heart...The woods with the little yellow crocuses, the smell of the oaks when we rode through the same woods in early summer-and oh! so many, many things which are gone...God bless you and keep you safe". Știrbey was denied permission to attend Marie's funeral. When King Carol II established his royal dictatorship on 10 February 1938, almost every living former Romanian prime minister joined the cabinet of the new prime minister, Patriarch Miron Cristea of the Romanian Orthodox Church, which openly declared its intention to serve the king. Joining the cabinet were the former prime ministers Constantin Angelescu, Gheorghe Tătărescu, Artur Văitoianu, Gheorghe Mironescu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, Alexandru Averescu, and Nicolae Iorga. Știrbey was the only former prime minister vetoed by Carol II, and in turn Știrbey stated that he would not serve Carol even if he had been asked. The other former prime ministers who were asked to join were Octavian Goga and Iuliu Maniu, both of whom refused, albeit for very different reasons. World War Two In 1940, after the abdication of King Carol II, Știrbey returned to Romania. Știrbey's son-in-law, Edwin Boxshall, was a British businessman long resident in Romania who married Elena "Maddie" Știrbey in 1920. In 1940, Boxshall left Bucharest and upon his return to London became an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in charge of encouraging anti-Axis resistance in Romania. Through Boxshall, Știrbey was in contact with the SOE throughout World War Two. After the British legation in Bucharest was closed when the Antonescu government broke off diplomatic relations with Britain on 17 February 1941, the main SOE office for operations in Romania was moved to the British consulate in Istanbul. The main SOE contact between Istanbul and Bucharest was a wealthy Turkish arms dealer, Satvet Lutfi Tozan, who also served as the honorary Finnish consul in Istanbul. Tozan's arms dealing business allowed him to travel all over the Balkans without creating suspicions. That Tozan was allowed to hold meetings with