• 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.

"The Woman's Voice" is pleased to publish the portrait of Mrs. Asma Nasr al-Qusous, wife of His Excellency Dr. Hanna Pasha al-Qusous, who works side by side with her distinguished husband in works of piety and charity and in many benevolent projects. She works in deep silence, and their home is seldom empty of those who frequent it, upon whom she lavishes kindness and charity, easing for them the ways of livelihood, whether they be from the people of dear, bleeding Palestine, or from the needy people of Transjordan. In appreciation of her humanitarian services she has been awarded the Order of the "Cross of the Holy Sepulchre." May God multiply her like, for the service of the homeland and of humanity.

Dr. Jamal Karam Harfush

For the first time, Lebanon has ventured to appoint a Lebanese lady to a public official post, when its government invited Dr. Jamal Karam Harfush to accept the position of secretary in the Lebanese delegation to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, with the rank of attaché of the first class. This issue may not reach the hands of its readers before this brilliant Lebanese lady has already left Lebanon for New York.

The Woman's Voice rejoices in this appointment, inspired solely by the competence, capability, and rare gifts with which Dr. Harfush is endowed, and which will, without doubt, qualify her to raise the name of Lebanon in general, and of the Lebanese woman in particular, in international circles.

We have received from Mrs. Salma Jaber a piece entitled "Onward, Daughter of Amil," full of sincerity in its call to the daughter of Amil to cast off the garment of ignorance and walk the road of learning and knowledge. In this worthy piece there is a leaping spirit and a genuine élan, for in it she says: "The Amili girl struggles and clears the way to perform her portion of the sacred duty toward the sons of her country. And these services, though they have not yet attained their loftiest goal, are the herald of a happy future and a fine renaissance... So onward, daughter of the South, onward to drink from the cup of learning, for the time has come for you to shatter the chains of ignorance and appear in the sky of freedom and glory."