Harvest of the Month

* Dar al-Ilm lil-Malayin has issued the second book of its sex series, entitled 'What No Girl Should Fail to Know,' by Dr. Mrs. Mary al-Khawud, Arabized by Mr. Khalil Hintani. It is a study in which science is brought down into an atmosphere that every ordinary girl can understand, and it thereby fills a basic gap in the library of our young girl, from whom we have so long kept such subjects away. This is the same house that has been issuing the psychological series since last March; a set of nine books has been completed so far, treating a selection of subjects from psychology such as shyness, the feeling of inferiority, worry, and the art of dealing with people.

• The Women's League in Beirut opened its winter season with a private meeting that brought together ninety of the elite of the ladies, at which Mrs. Roberts spoke on the teaching curricula and the ways of reforming them; she laid upon the teachers a great responsibility for understanding the pupils — for in her opinion there is not one among them who feels it.

• The Lebanese Women's League held, at Ahliah National College on the 21st of the current month, a gathering at which Dr. Sharfars spoke on the subject 'An Opinion on the Management of Education in Lebanon' ...

• The government had charged a committee composed of the playwright Mr. Farid Medawar and Messrs. Joseph Nasr and Rashad al-Aris with studying the project of forming a Lebanese theatrical troupe. After successive meetings the committee presented a resolution containing a project which the government approved, charging the committee to continue its work and to apply what its report contained. The report is in two parts: the first sets out the rapid steps that must be taken to begin work under present circumstances; the second looks to what the troupe is to become and what it will need in the future — a great playhouse, a development toward the holding of dramatic competitions with money prizes, and all the other artistic matters besides. The committee calls upon lovers of the theatrical and cinematic arts to lend it their support.

• At the Lebanese Soldier's Home, attention was drawn by artistic pictures presented to the Soldier's Home by certain Lebanese artists — among them a picture of an aged Lebanese by Mr. al-Duwayhi, whose brush caught all the goodness and hardiness there is in the old man of Lebanon; a landscape by Mr. Farroukh, most happily chosen; and a picture of a boundless cedar by Mr. Onsi.

• Tree Day was celebrated on Sunday, December 2, in all parts of Lebanon. The official ceremony took place opposite the Museum, in the presence of His Excellency the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Agriculture and Finance, the representatives of the states ... and the authorities, the Governor of Beirut, the deputies, the men of the press, the heads of the organizations, the students, and the leading members of the Friends of the Tree Association. After His Excellency had been received with the national anthem and a storm of applause, Badr Bey Dimashqiyah, president of the association, spoke on the benefits of afforestation; then His Excellency the President delivered a speech in which he said that Tree Day has become a national holiday: in the cities as in the villages the Lebanese give themselves to the festival of planting and bow before the earth to set new life within it.

• The Ministry of National Economy in Damascus held, on the morning of Monday, December 10, under the patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic, a ceremony for the creation of a model forest in the district of Ain al-Barouda, where a great number of forest, ornamental, and fruit trees are to be planted — this out of its desire to encourage afforestation and planting and to protect trees from felling. It is the first time such a holiday has been held in Syria; and the Syrian government will proceed by stages toward establishing an annual holiday which the country, from one end to the other, will celebrate on a single day, planting on it the greatest possible number of trees of every kind.

• The Committee for the Beautification of Beirut held a session under the chairmanship of the Director of Public Works and adopted several resolutions, which it submitted to the Ministry of Works and for tender. The beautification of the capital is to begin at the opening of the new year.

• The Council of Ministers examined the report presented by Mr. Fransha Toni, director of the Chtaura branch of the Near East Foundation, the Institute of Rural Life, concerning aid to the peasant in the fields of health and agriculture, and entrusted the Ministers of Health and Agriculture with studying what the report contained.

• Mr. Abdullah Mashnouq, formerly director of the Makassed, delivered a lecture at Bayt al-Najjar on the new directions in the new curriculum. A sharp exchange arose between the lecturer and His Excellency Sami Bey al-Solh over the completion of the amendment of the curriculum, ending in a pleasantry in which His Excellency Abdullah al-Yafi took part. The lecturer boldly reviewed the new amendments to the curriculum in his capacity as a member of the amendment committee.

• The Charitable Work Committee of the Basta quarter marked the feast of the Hijri New Year by distributing cloth and rice ... to the poor, in the presence of Their Excellencies Sami Bey al-Solh, Riad Bey al-Solh, and Abdullah Bey al-Yafi, and the notables Omar Bey Daouk and Anis Bey al-Shaykh.

• The Lebanese Antiquities Service has been attached to the Ministry of National Education, and the trade in antiquities, whether for export or for import, has become subject to an official license granted by the Ministry of National Education.

• The Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts, under the direction of its master Alexis Boutros, presented on December 22 and 23 the Christmas Oratorio of the composer Bach, in the great hall of the American University of Beirut. The piece is of the melodious kind — the prelude above all — this by comparison with Berlioz and Wagner. The Beirut audience accorded it great respect among the connoisseurs, for its music ... is of the emotional kind to which our good public is accustomed.

• The Egyptian Vanguard Troupe has come to Beirut and given dramatic performances at the Grand Theater. This troupe made a specialty, in London, of a line which it strives earnestly and actively to bring out. It has succeeded in its visits to the Arab lands — Iraq, Transjordan, and Syria — and will visit Palestine after completing its theatrical mission in Beirut.

• The Finance Committee has approved the Ministry of National Education's choice of two great men of letters: Mr. Bechara al-Khoury for the post of counselor for the Arabic language in the ministry, and Dr. Nicolas Fayyad for the publication of the fruits of Lebanese thought. Both begin their work at the first of the new year.