It has been erected not far from the farm of "Belle-Alliance" opposite the French monument; it is composed of a column standing on a cubical foot; the top is surmounted by a crowing Gallic cock.

We shall give here some fragments of the speeches which were pronounced when the first stone was laid on September 22nd 1912:

From Mr Camille Senne's speech, in the name of the French committee: "This monument is the affirmation of the sovereignty of thought, the revenge of Poetry on brutal courage. If poets have made gods, they also can make heroes and Napoleon of Waterloo owes his real immortality to Victor Hugo, the author of the "Châtiments" and the "Misérables".

From that of Mr Ivan Gilkin, the poet of "Nuit" in the name of the Belgian committee: "Modern times have witnessed a prodigious epopee; it has terminated upon this plain in a bloody catastrophe. That epopee has found its Homer. He ought to be glorified on the very spot which inspired his master-pieces. It is moreover just and salutary that on this vast ossuary, where so many monuments remember the horrors of war and the atrociousness of death, another monument should be erected, celebrating Life, the Light of the day, Hope and Faith, Labour and Peace".

And last not least, Mr Fleischmann, in the name of the promoters of the work, said: "Let us protest against those who consider this column a new mark in memory of the defeat... The monument which we erect is not a monument of mourning and sorrow, but of Faith, Piety and Hope. It will attest the victory of Thought upon Force, the indescribable conquest which Poetry assures to a beaten nation over those who vanquished it".