Lebanon Awards Mrs. Najla Saab Its Cedar Medal — A Delightful Party at the Normandy, Held by the Women's Union

A description of the party:

The Lebanese Arab Women's Federation issued invitations to a party which it held at the Normandy on the evening of Monday, April 8, on the occasion of the government's conferral of the Lebanese Cedar Medal upon Mrs. Najla Saab. The hotel was thronged with gracious ladies, headed by the First Lady of Lebanon, and with some men — in a very small proportion — foremost among them His Excellency the Prime Minister, His Excellency the Minister of Health, and the honorable president of the Press Syndicate, along with other notables and dignitaries.

Mrs. Rose Shahfa, president of the Lebanese Arab Women's Federation, opened the party with an address that made a fine impression. Then His Excellency the Prime Minister spoke, acknowledging woman's merit in our renaissance and praising the efforts of the honoree; then he pinned the medal upon her breast amid a storm of applause. The word then passed to Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura, who delivered a profound and measured address which those present interrupted again and again with applause. Then Mrs. Saab delivered an address of thanks and patriotism, with her well-known modesty and graciousness. After that, those present were invited to an elegant buffet containing the best of good things to eat, and the company gathered in circle after circle, eating and conversing; then all departed, speaking of the order and generosity displayed at that party, and of the graciousness of the ladies who gave it.

And "The Woman's Voice" addresses to Mrs. Najla Saab — one of the excellent ladies who have contributed, and still contribute, to bringing it to life — its sincerest sentiments of congratulation and esteem.

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The reader will find below some of the addresses delivered at that party:

The address delivered by His Excellency the Prime Minister, Sami Bey al-Solh, at the party for Mrs. Saab:

My gracious ladies, members of the Lebanese Arab Women's Federation; gentlemen:

It pleases me on this occasion to call attention to the great role that woman plays in the life of the homeland, though this role is as plain as the sun at high noon and needs no telling.

As for our lady honored today, the former president, her endeavor in the field of national life is known to all. This excellent, patriotic lady presided over the movement of the women's renaissance during a period in which the country passed through obstacles that demanded resolve, courage, and service from all Lebanese men and women; in the face of the obstacles confronting the country she performed the national duty in the best of fashions, sharing in it with the gracious Lebanese ladies, all of whom raised the homeland's cause high and served it with cooperation and integrity.

Among the things it pleases me to mention is that our honored lady recently gave, before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on the Palestine question, eloquent testimony in defense of the sacred right of the Arabs; and her testimony found the finest and most far-reaching echo.

So when the government, ladies and gentlemen, invests Mrs. Najla Saab with the national Cedar Medal, it is rewarding one of the devoted workers in the field of national life, and affirming at the same time its esteem for the great role that the rising women of Lebanon have played and continue to play.

The address of Mrs. Rose Shahfa

Your Excellency; gentlemen:

It is a joy for the Lebanese Arab Women's Federation, and a pride for woman, to honor a sister of ours whose merit men have appreciated, even if only after a time, so that those responsible in the government issued a decree adorning that

breast — a decree which does not make it any broader, but makes it more ardent, more zealous, more eager toward the highest ideals and loftiest aims.

The Federation is pleased to thank His Excellency the President of the Republic and His Excellency the Prime Minister, those two gracious men, for their lofty kindness and for conferring the Cedar Medal, deservedly and on merit, upon the gracious sister Mrs. Najla Saab — who never gave a thought to this reward, to whose mind the medal never once occurred — when she walked in the vanguard of the sisters, driven by her free feeling and her sincere patriotism, to defend the existence of Lebanon and its government, its flag and its dignity, in the year '43 — that ill-omened year, or blessed year, as the well-known saying has it: "Perhaps you hate a thing though it is good for you" — for that initiative, and that crucible through which the patriots passed, brought them out of the melting pot of enslavement to become, after a while, masters in their own Lebanon; and that smiling hope of rising from the lower to the higher, which possessed them for so long, gave birth to that revolution to which the law of free life summoned them — the life by which one moves toward glory and dignity. Can the worth of that initiative be measured, and of that development so longed for? May God take them by the hand and enable them, one and all, to serve this homeland; and may the Lebanese Arab Women's Federation continue striving in the service of the country, flourishing and favored with success.

...our souls and the souls of our fathers and forefathers, that we may turn it to the good of the Lebanon we love and hold sacred. And will those of us who bear responsibility, holding in their hands these arches of victory, guide it toward a virtuous, fruitful, wise life, setting it in the rank of the free nations that move forward in their processions from one link to the next, smashing everything that

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