Letters and News

On the second of August 1947 the marriage contract of Mr. Youssef al-Khal, general editorial director of Dar al-Kitab, to Miss Han, daughter of Mr. Tamer Joseph, one of the foremost of our Lebanese emigrants, was concluded in the city of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Attendance was confined to the members of the two families.

Mrs. Muneera Dumit Shehadeh delivered a valuable address at the ceremony of the distribution of diplomas to the graduating girls of the American School for Girls, Beirut, in which she said:

"This society, to which I welcome you in the name of my sisters the graduates, is the oldest women's society in Beirut, and it is the mother of all this women's movement and this blessed renaissance whose influence you feel today in the Arab East. For the graduates of this institution are trained in this society in the management of societies, in cooperation, and in joining with the whole for the general good and the common interest; and the influence of a group whose aims and efforts are united knows no limit.

Persevere in the work, earnestness, study, and diligence you have begun. Keep the spirit of order, precision, and arrangement. Spread these strong principles and this steady character, which are your precious capital. Set before your eyes a lofty goal, a noble aim, and a spiritual mission which you strive to carry to the circle into which you are moving. Trade with these precious talents that are in your hands, and set to work at once — without hesitation, without sloth, without postponement. The country is in need of wise leadership: be yourselves the nucleus of that leadership in service, in reform, and in public undertakings. Order your times and your labors, and draw up a budget for this time as you draw up the economic and financial budget, for both are precious and must be preserved and turned to profit. Study your inclinations and your gifts, and devote your efforts to the side toward which you incline and which you desire, or where you find the need pressing. Before you lies a straight road: walk it without hesitation. Overcome the obstacles, laugh in the face of calamities, and smooth away the difficulties."

On the fourteenth of June in the year 1947, the Girls' Education Society held a memorial gathering at the club of the American Sunday School for the late Mrs. Evdokia Saad, one of the founders of this society, who served it actively for thirty-eight years. From the day she opened her eyes to the light of knowledge she rendered silent service in the social and charitable fields, supporting numerous charitable institutions, her motto: "Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing."

The club was thronged with a company of the venerable Greek Orthodox clergy — for the gracious departed had rendered generous services to the Orthodox charitable institutions — and with the highest of the land, who valued her honorable, silent work, and with all the esteemed Saad family.

The gathering was opened by Mrs. Zahia Saad, president of the Girls' Education Society; there followed her Mr. Jirji Baz, Mrs. Nazik Sarkis, Miss Samya Jirji Atiyeh, Mr. Nasim Nasr, Miss Stephanie Khoury, Mr. Issa Mansour, Mrs. Salwa Dimashqiyah al-Sa'id on behalf of her mother Mrs. Julia, and Mr. Dir Atani — all of whom recounted the praiseworthy virtues with which the departed was adorned. Then Mr. Antoun Saad, the departed lady's son, rose and thanked the society, the speakers, and those present. And the gathering dispersed, magnifying the departed lady's silent work and hoping that her like may multiply among the women of Lebanon.

The Committee for Combating the Employment of Minors, presided over by the excellent Mrs. Hanneh Shaheen, submitted the following memorandum to the leading men of the Lebanese government:

The Committee for Combating the Employment of Minors — composed of representatives of the ten organizations whose names are listed below, which has been working in this cause for nine years and has had occasion to study the condition of the child and his problems, believing in the importance of attention to the child as a cornerstone in the building of society — submits to Your Excellencies the following:

1. The labor law forbids the work of the child who is under twelve years of age; and yet there remains in our factories a great number of child workers under the legal age, the responsibility for whose presence there falls upon the weakness of government inspection or its lack of effectiveness.

2. The labor law does not cover the child workers who work in the private crafts and workshops — that is, with the blacksmiths, the carpenters, the bakers, the barbers, the grocers, and their like among shopkeepers.

3. There are hundreds of children scattered through the streets of Beirut for portering and peddling, or for pickpocketing and the various trades they ply until a late hour of the night, thereby exposing themselves to all manner of harmful influences, since there is no law to send them back to their homes or their schools.

4. Since the number of child workers is in constant increase — especially the children of the street, whose danger grows — while at the same time the men without work, who ought to have taken the place of the child workers, increase also, we draw the attention of Your Excellencies to the necessity of concern for the matter of the children, for reasons plain enough to need no proof; and we therefore propose:

1 - An increase in the number of government inspectors in the factories, and the making of inspection more precise and more effective.
2 - The amendment of the labor law so that it covers all child workers in the private crafts and workshops.
3 - That child workers who have reached the legal age — that is, twelve years — be given a badge entitling them to the right to work in the street, this badge to be free of charge. Then we should no longer see in the streets of Beirut peddlers and porters five or seven years of age.

4 - The replacement of the family-allowance scheme — whose harm has been proved in the private industries and companies, which refuse to employ married men — by the scheme of social insurance, which covers all workers, married and single alike, and secures compensation in cases of sickness and dismissal, its costs to be shared among the government, the factories, and the employer.

5 - We ask insistently that you grant the question of compulsory education more of your attention, for it is the sole solution to the problem of child labor; and to this end we propose:
(1) A gradual increase in the Education budget in such fashion as to secure the attainment of compulsory education within a fixed period not exceeding five years.

(b) The transfer of the army tax that was imposed on postage stamps to the budget of the Ministry of Education, so that there would be a national education stamp in place of the army stamp. We are confident that the people will bear this tax with good grace, as they bore the abolished army tax, for their sharing in the costs of national education is a duty incumbent on them after the example of the rest of the civilized peoples.