The Pulaskian., 1919-10-03

British Lion. Tn 1929, shortly after it's erection, French visitor named Saintlne described it as "the Belgic Lion locking towards and apparently Threatening France" That description seems not to have been forgotten, and probably lies at the root of the Sug gestion just made in Brussels to turn the lion round so that the threat--it needs very lively imagination to see any at all-in the pose may be divert ed from France in the direction of Holland, writes Demetrius c. Boulger in the Graphic.
 What was the origin of the mound and the lion? In the first place, the animal represented is neither Brit ish nor Belgic emblem; it Is the Dutch lion. and somewhere in corner, if it has not been obliterated, will be found, imagine, the motto of Nassau Orange, "Je Maintiendrai." Whatever is done with it, then, the susceptibil- itfes of neither Belgians nor British are involved. The British government have certainly no inherited claim to a voice in whatever solution may be adopted. It is not their concern.
 How the Mound Was Built.
 Tn 1926 William of the Netherlands, the great-grandfather of the present Queen Wilhelmina and one of the most obstinate personages to be found in the whole range of history, conceived that the field of Waterloo required a memorial to establish the heroism of his eldest son, who had received a wound on the occasion. The king was actuated entirely by dynastic consid- erations, unless he also wished to pro- vide the foundries of Cockerill, In which he was the largest shareholder, with a profitable commission. At all events it is quite clear that the Bel gian people took no interest or part in the matter, which was decided by a vote of the states-general at The Hague. The vote being passed, the governments of Britain and Prussia were then Invited to make contribu- ton to the memorial. They complied to a certain limited extent, the British consenting, for their part, to the re- moval of certain French cannon in Wellington's Belgian fortresses in or der to provide the material for the proposed lion.
 By that time William had decided on the form of the memorial. It was to be the erection of an enormous mound some 200 feet above the crest of Mont St. Jean, at the spot where his son, the prince of Orange, had been wound ed, the mound to be crowned by the Lion of the Netherlands. The clay for the mound was brought from the steep sides of the famous "sunken road" which disappeared in the process, by women of the district who were paid at the rate of half franc basket, and the site marked by Wclllngtons tree was included within the radius of the elevation-so that when the duke re- visited the scene in 1929 with his daughter-in-law, Lady Douro, he made the expressive comment, My battle field has been spoilt."
 Legend of the Lions Tail.
 The memorial, completed in 1928, had been in existence two years when the Belgian revolution broke out in August, 1830 A year later French army advanced to Louyain to repel a Dutch invasion. It was said that some of the French corps in that advance crossed the field and took offense, not at the mound or the lion, but at the shape of its tail, which, erect In the air, seemed to express defiance! The story went on to say that in their wrath they broke of the tail, and that the complaisant Belgians supplied the lion with new one, no longer erect, but made gracefully dependent.
 I went to considerable pains in 1901 to show that this legend could have no real basis, because the contemporary
 rawlings In the Brussels Museum of Prints showed the lion being hoisted into it's position with the tail in pre- cisely the same form as 1t wears to- day. There is no evidence of any change having been made at that time or any other.
 In December, 1882, the French army rendered second signal service to the Belgian people by the siege and cap ture of the Antwerp citadel, and once more French regiment traversed the scene without doing any damage. A proposal was then made in the Belgian chamber by patriotic leader, M. Gen debien, to the effect that the na- lional gratitude should be evinced by the removal Of the lion monument al- together. He called if, and justly, as has been shown. "tlc hateful emblem af the desDotism and violence. which made US subject for 15 years to the hun.ilieting yoke which we cast off in