According to one of the PCD's main opponents, the writer and journalist Tudor Arghezi, Ionescu changed his priorities on the very day King Carol convoked a Crown Council which confirmed neutrality policies (3 August 1914). In this version of events, the Conservative Democrat commented upon the necessity of supporting the Entente Powers just as he was leaving Peleş Castle; Arghezi commented with irony that: "before reaching the street, Mr. Take Ionescu had reviewed his ideas several times. [...] It would seem that Mr. Take Ionescu's ideas are stillborn, just like premature babies, born before their time and dead before having an age". He also expressed a view that the new policy was "demagogy", intended to bring the PCD into government ("Let all perish, as long as Mr. Take Ionescu succeeds!"), and contrasted Ionescu's claim to represent popular interest with his refusal to accept land reform and universal suffrage.