Letters and News

● The most important events of the past month were the activity that accompanied the arrival of the UNESCO delegates in Lebanon, to prepare for the convening of the world cultural conference next October. The holding of this great cultural conference in Lebanon is among the things that raise Lebanon's name internationally in the world of thought.

The responsible bodies have arranged accommodations for nearly two thousand persons. The choice fell on one of the large army barracks, and it was also decided that a new building would be erected on an area of 3,000 square meters.

Next October Lebanon will witness the greatest cultural demonstration, the first of its kind in the Arab world.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave a party in honor of the UNESCO delegates, to which the men of letters and learning were invited. The Director of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Fouad Ammoun, delivered a fine address in which he said: Lebanon is proud to have been able to set loose its spiritual values and to stand in the vanguard of the torch-bearers who light the right road.

The choice of Lebanon as the seat of this conference in its third session, after Paris and Mexico, will help the city to flourish, for no world city has ever arisen in the past except upon the foundations of the two civilizations, Eastern and Western.

And we shall prove to the world at large that the language of Dad is a language of culture and art as it is a language of literature and poetry.

The Honorable Director Ammoun announced that Arabic will be an official language in the lectures and the proceedings...

● News from Lake Success brought word that Dr. Charles Malik, Lebanon's delegate to the United Nations, has been elected president of the Economic and Social Council for its sixth session by a unanimous vote. Dr. Malik was nominated by Mr. Lange, the delegate of Poland, and his nomination was seconded by the delegates of Britain, France, China, the United States, and Brazil. The delegate of Poland spoke of Dr. Malik's merits and his activity, and the delegate of Britain said that Lebanon's re-election as a member of the Economic Council is owed to Dr. Malik's rare and great personality.

● The death of Mahatma Gandhi, the saint of India and her greatest leader, at the hand of a Hindu extremist, was among the most prominent events of the past month. Gandhi was more than a man; he was, in truth, a philosophy and a way of life. His death came like the snapping of one of the great cords; and with his death there faded from the world a great spiritual light, which alone lit man's darkness in the age of matter.

● Among the news of struggling Palestine is that the Palestinian woman has rolled up her sleeves in earnest and gone down into the field of battle — into iron, fire, and blood — working hand in hand with the heroic fighters to save the Holy Land. Bravo, then, to this mighty leap the women of the Arabs are making for the sake of Palestine!

● With the death of Mr. Maarouf al-Arnaout, Arabic literature has lost a pen like embroidered silk and like the colors of spring.