3. "We haven't actually announced we're going to tear down the ruin. We haven't made a decision yet."

The Associated Press article on Jan. 24. 2001, states "Leiden alderman Alexander Pechtold welcomed what he called the end of seven years of legal battles. He said the demolition will go ahead, but that no date has been set."

There is no other statement by a Leiden official except the remark of the Leiden City Archivist, Ariela Netiv, who was quoted in Het Parool (Jan. 26) as saying that she didn't think the small number of Pilgrims associated with the Vrouwekerk was enough to justify saving any monument. In the absence of a firm statement that the Vrouwekerk will not be demolished, the situation is that the town has granted itself a demolition permit in 1995 and that no further procedure is required before that can be put into execution. The monument could be torn down tomorrow under the existing legal situation. The only statement is Mr. Pechtold's, that the monument will come down. Since then, newspapers have carried an unsigned news report (distributed by the ANP - General Netherlandish Press Bureau, a semi-government institution) that states the city is considering whether or not the monument might not after all be given a place in a redesigned Vrouwekerk Square. The redevelopment plan from 1995 is described in this article as out-dated. But no city official is quoted to support the claim that anything is being considered, or by whom, or what that might mean; and consequently that guarantees absolutely nothing. A few newspapers ran this story with the headline "Leiden Wants to Save the Vrouwekerk." Nothing in the story justifies that interpretation. After considering that question of whether the church can be saved, the aldermen can simply say they thought about it and concluded that the Pilgrim connection was not enough to justify saving the monument (which is what the other Leiden official, Netiv, said publicly, in the presence of Mr. Pechtold, at the press conference announcing that the city is going to have a Pilgrim Information Center). I have not been consulted about that information center, of course; it is clearly intended to be a place from which the town can present propaganda to the effect that the Pilgrims were unimportant. They may even use their Pilgrim website to "prove" that the Vrouwekerk is not part of any American heritage. Mr. Pechtold is cited as having said that visitors to the site would be able to judge for themselves whether there was any Pilgrim connection to the Vrouwekerk and whether the the Vrouwekerk was in any way a part of the American heritage.

Here's the story as printed by the Los Angeles Times (24 Jan. It appeared the next day in the N. Y. Times and Washington Post, among other places, sometimes shortened.)

Dutch Pilgrim Site May Be Destroyed

By JEROME SOCOLOVSKY, Associated Press Writer

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands--A royal advisory body has approved the demolition of one of the last vestiges of the Pilgrims' stay in the Netherlands before sailing to the New World.

The Council of State, chaired by Queen Beatrix, said Wednesday it has rejected an appeal of the plan to bulldoze a remnant of the 14th-century church where the Pilgrims once prayed.

The mossy brick wall of the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, or Church of Our Dear Lady, will come down to make way for a shopping mall in the center of Leiden, 30 miles southwest of Amsterdam.

The Pilgrims lived in Holland after fleeing religious persecution in England and sailed to America beginning in 1620. Records show ancestors of President Bush were married in the church.

The council determined that Leiden city officials acted fairly when they issued a permit to demolish the wall. The appellants, including the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, claimed the city council withheld information on the project and sought to prevent public protests.

Council decisions are not binding, but they are rarely ignored in a country governed by consensus.

Leiden alderman Alexander Pechtold welcomed what he called the end of seven years of legal battles. He said the demolition will go ahead, but that no date has been set.

Jeremy Bangs, the Pilgrim museum's American director, said the demolition was not a foregone conclusion. But he was pessimistic about the efforts to stop it.

"I'm going out to get a roll of film so I'll be there when they demolish it," said Bangs.

The development program, approved last summer, also calls for the destruction of a former hospital hall where Myles Standish was treated when he was injured while serving in the Dutch army.

Bangs says the church wall and the hospital site are the only buildings remaining from the Pilgrims' stay. [MY COMMENT: I didn't quite say that. the city hall, for example, is also a Pilgrim site, because several Pilgrim couples were married there.- Jeremy] Pechtold, however, said that Pilgrims also prayed at another church that still stands, and that at least one home where a Pilgrim lived remains intact.

He contended that the wall is "only a very very small part" of the Pilgrims' heritage in Leiden.

"They lived for 12 years in our city so every house, every street, is a reminder of the Pilgrims," Pechtold said.

Bangs said he would continue campaigning against the demolition. He hopes Bush will take an interest in the monument.

"It's the only building in this country which has a direct connection to the president of the United States," he said.