SMASHED BALCONY DOWN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 9

SMASHED BALCONY DOWN

LOUVAIN FOREMAN NO ANTI-GERMAN INSCRIPTION (United P A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) Times Cable. LONDON, Tuesday. The Brussels correspondent of “The Times” says that after witnessing the annual processiqn to the cemetery of the widows and orphans of the Louvain men who were shot in 1914. Felix Morren, foreman in charge of the reconstruction of the university library, ascended to the roof with a sledgehammer and demolished the new balcony. The latter has been erected without the anti-German inscription at first designed for it. When Morren was arrested he told the Public Prosecutor he considered he was wrong in helping to rebuild the balcony. He added: “The Germans led us a pretty dance and that balcony meant forgetting it all.”

A’ crowd of more than 1,000 workmen and students on June 27 stormed the Louvain University library and destroyed a new memorial balustrade. The university authorities had refused to allow the inscription: “Destroyed by German fury, restored by American generosity,” to be placed on the balustrade. The demonstrators shouted: “Long live Whitney Warren,” the American architect in charge of the restoration work. They then stoned the men who were workingin the building and put them to flight. Mr Warren said Cardinal Mercier desired the inscription quoted to appear on the balustrade. On the other hand, Monsignor La Denze, rector of the university, declared it would be contrary to the spirit of Locarno. On June 30 it was announced that the construction had been commenced of the balcony without the inscription which the demonstrators had demanded should be placed on the balustrade. The police protected the workers.