Letters and News

• The Lebanese Red Cross held a general meeting at the National Museum in Beirut, honored by the presence of Her Ladyship the First Lady of Lebanon. At the meeting Mrs. Najla Saab read a general report on the various works of the Red Cross, and the treasurer likewise read her financial report; then ten members were elected to the administrative body, which is composed of thirty members. The following ladies won — titles duly reserved: Madame Gaston Hochar, Madame Jean Bustros, Madame Selim Takla, Miss Abqa Helou, Madame Jacques Tabet, Madame Alfred Nakkash, Madame Dr. Elias al-Khoury, Madame Jamil al-Daouk, Madame Ramez Ghazzawi, Madame Sheikh Khalil Alamuddin.

Moreover, the members of the Red Cross resolved unanimously to name Her Ladyship the First Lady of Lebanon permanent honorary president — a resolution well placed, given the generous favors Her Ladyship has bestowed upon this noble project.

• We have received from Mrs. S. M. of Tripoli the following letter:

Greetings and respect. The opportunity came my way to listen to The Woman's Voice broadcast delivered by Miss Marie Sabri last week. It pleased me greatly that The Woman's Voice does not confine itself to recording the great women's movements in the capital, but goes beyond them to every work of value carried out by any women's organization in any town of Lebanon — indeed, in any country of the Arab lands. The latest Woman's Voice broadcast is proof of this. In it Miss Sabri spoke of the Children's Welfare Society in Tripoli, that young society which has begun to occupy a distinguished place in the city thanks to the efforts its worthy president, Mrs. Aliyya Zoq, expends upon it, and the care, vigilance, and wise, skillful direction she devotes to it. Yet the talk about the society passed over a matter which it is neither just nor fair to pass over. For if the society has attained the success and flourishing it has attained thanks to the efforts of its present president, Mrs. Zoq, that was also, from another side, thanks to the first efforts — indeed the first struggle — carried out by a band of noble ladies in Tripoli, at their head Mrs. Yumn, the wife of Jamil al-Shal, the author of the idea and the actual founder of this precious humanitarian work.

By this word, which I hope you will kindly publish, I intended only to record one of the facts, and to recall a stage in this society's history that was filled with much effort, striving, and patience — and it was of the nature of the work to be wholly silent, for the good alone.

• The Orthodox Hand-work Society in Beirut held a benefit performance at the Roxy Cinema, at which the Honorable leader Dr. Halim Saadeh delivered a valuable address in which he recalled the praiseworthy charitable endeavors the society is carrying out, and gave thanks, in the name of the society's president, Mrs. Victoria Dabbas, and in the name of the working ladies and the members, to Her Ladyship the First Lady of Lebanon for her sympathy and her championing of this project; he also singled out for thanks His Excellency the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Gabriel Murr, for his kindness in placing this performance under his patronage.

Then the Honorable leader concluded his speech with an eloquent ode, which was received with great approval.

• The Egyptian man of letters Dr. Abd al-Rahman Badawi delivered three philosophical lectures at the Institute of Higher Letters, which won great approval in learned circles.

• The Iraqi government has concerned itself with opening night schools to teach mothers household management and child-rearing.

• It appears from the latest statistics in Lebanon that the number of female students exceeds the number of males by 4,479.

• Miss Emily Bisharat, president of the Women's Union, has returned to Amman after representing her country at the international women's congress.

• The government of the Hijaz is considering sending midwives to Europe to specialize in child care, at the government's expense.

• The Egyptian government is studying a memorandum on giving the right to vote to the educated woman.

• In Jaffa, Palestine, the opening ceremony of the charity bazaar of the Women's Social Solidarity Association took place. It was attended by a large crowd of ladies, young ladies, and notables. Miss Sumayya Jarallah, secretary of the Women's Solidarity Association in Jaffa, delivered a fine word in which she said:

"Our country is tormented and we are in pain. Critical times confront us today, and whirlwinds blow upon us that all but choke us; and it is not in our power to sit with folded hands, moaning and aching and complaining of what has befallen us and may yet befall us. The time is a time for work, and we have only to work together to make our country a fitter, more useful, more profitable place for the life we live. In circumstances such as our present ones we face two problems, one political and one social, which threaten our very existence. Let us leave the man to work in politics; there remain the social problems, which are no less important than politics, and which are necessary to our country and our people. Can a country succeed and rise unless life within it is firm and steadfast — unless the specters of disease and ignorance cease to hover over its people, and the specters of illusion and doubt cease to weigh upon their souls, casting them into sore straits and painful perplexity?

Here the mission of the Arab woman appears to us in its clearest meanings: it is for her to fill this great void, which our country needs filled more than any other people does; and this mission falls only upon the shoulders of the refined, well-bred woman.

• On Saturday, February 15, 1947, at exactly four o'clock in the afternoon, in the Maronite church at Heliopolis, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Joseph Abdo Abou Jaoude, owner and manager of the Abou Jaoude travel bureau in Beirut, Cairo, Alexandria, and Port Said, to the virtuous and chaste Miss Widad Ibrahim al-Ghusayn, daughter of Ibrahim al-Ghusayn, the famous contractor of Tanta (Egypt). Presiding over the ceremony was His Grace Bishop Boutros Dib, Patriarchal Vicar in Egypt and the Sudan. Standing as best man to the groom was His Excellency Sheikh Sami al-Khoury, Lebanon's Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the Royal Egyptian Government in Egypt, together with a company of the great and eminent Lebanese residing in Egypt. We hope and wish her lasting success and a life of plenty.

• The Women's Charitable Projects Society in Aleppo distributed wool sweaters and broadcloth garments to its schoolgirls.

• Demonstrations of students, men and women, took place in Damascus, calling: We want elections in a single stage, after the manner of the advanced countries.

• The Zahrat al-Ihsan school celebrated the silver jubilee of the able teacher Miss Asma Abdo; the government also delegated Mr. Bustros on its behalf to decorate her with the Education Medal in recognition of her labors and efforts over 25 years. It was a splendid celebration, at which a select group of prominent men and women of letters spoke.