Society News

● Literary circles received, with much pleasure and pride, the appointment of the great man of letters Sheikh Khalil Takieddine to the Directorate of Propaganda and Publication.

Sheikh Khalil, in an hour of time, together with a band of his companions, was the voice of this country in the world of poetry and letters; he sang to the letters splendid passages for which the letters long today, after this man of letters abandoned them for the world of politics. And the men of letters felt a pang of longing as they heard his voice, after his return from Moscow, carried out over the waves of the ether upon his taking up of the directorship.

And we expect much of Mr. Takieddine in developing the artistic and literary forces in this country. Nor shall we forget the merit of Sheikh Fayez Makarem and his efforts at the radio: in his time the radio knew an artistic and literary activity it had never known before, and knew a devotion to his work not known in any other of those who have taken charge of this department.

● The Honorable Mr. Adib Nahhas and his esteemed family have departed for Argentina, on the occasion of his appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Silver Republic. Mr. Adib Nahhas is one of the senior officials of the Lebanese Republic who worked to strengthen the new era. And his presence among the Lebanese emigrants there is a great pillar for erecting the other side of the Lebanese edifice, in the Mahjar.

"The Woman's Voice" — the Minister's wife having been among its best supporters — wishes our Minister in Argentina a happy journey and great work in the cause of Lebanon.

● Miss Salwa Massouh has left us by airplane for the United States to complete her studies and obtain a master's degree in the social sciences. Miss Massouh received the degree of Bachelor of Science from the American University of Beirut in 1946, then devoted herself to teaching at the Tajhiz school of Damascus as a teacher of the upper classes in Arabic literature. In Damascus Miss Massouh worked to invigorate the women's literary movement, and alongside her school work she lectured in the clubs and wrote in the press, thus carrying forward a mission begun by a generation of the elders of this family in Syria. She will spend a year in the United States, after which she will return to Syria, her country, which she loves, to do sound, positive work there and to fulfill the mission of the cultured woman in that country. "The Woman's Voice," which is bound to this literary young lady by close ties of affection, wishes for her that she remain always faithful to the great mission that must be accomplished at the hands of the Syrian woman.

● Mrs. Salma Lutfi al-Haffar is a distinguished woman of letters among the well-known literary women of Damascus, and the readers of "The Woman's Voice" know her from her articles published in this magazine from time to time.

In these days she has brought out a book entitled "Hala's Diary," which will have a far-reaching echo in literary and political circles. In it she has described the life of the young Syrian girl growing up between tradition and liberation, and then laid open the secrets of the assassination of Dr. Shahbandar.

There is no doubt that "Hala's Diary" will meet with the appreciation and admiration this daring authoress deserves.

And "The Woman's Voice" will try, when it appears, to present it to the readers in the "Read!" section.