VAIDA-VOEVOD, ALEXANDRE (1871— ), Ru manian statesman, was born at Olpret (Transylvania) in 1871. He studied medicine in Vienna and practised for many years at Karls bad (Karlovy Vary). At the age of 28 he joined the National Rumanian Party of Transylvania and from 1906-18 sat in the Hungarian parliament at Budapest, where he waged a permanent fight in defence of the Rumanians in Transylvania. On the col lapse of the Central Powers in the autumn of 1918, Vaida-Voevod was instructed by the newly formed "Rumanian national commit tee," to voice their claims in the Hungarian parliament. Invoking the right of self-determination he denied the right of the Hun garian Government to speak in the name of the Rumanians of Transylvania and claimed that the latter should have their own representative at the Peace Conference. Soon after, the Rumanian national committee took administrative control of Transylvania and delegated Vaida-Voevod to represent the Rumanians of Tran sylvania and the Banat at the Peace Conference in Paris.
In 1919 Dr. Vaida-Voevod was appointed prime minister and minister for foreign affairs of Rumania and in the latter capacity went to Paris and London early in the following year to negotiate with the French and British Governments the recognition of the union of Bessarabia with Rumania. This he succeeded in doing in March 1920 when the rights of Rumania over Bessarabia were rec ognized by the Supreme Economic Council, and afterwards ratified by the Treaty of London (Oct. 28, 1920). Dr. Vaida-Voevod resigned in the same year and afterwards sat in parliament as one of the leaders of the National Rumanian Party, from which he later resigned. He was prime minister again from Aug. to Oct. 1932, and from Jan. to Nov. 1933.