This is the ardent appeal sent to us by the great poet, beloved of the Arab world, Rashid Salim al-Khoury, "the Village Poet." He addressed this appeal specifically to the emigrants in Brazil; and we, who know what national feeling clamors in the heart of our great poet "al-Qarawi," salute him from our side, from here—may God prolong his life and his overflowing vitality...
Dear honored citizen,
No doubt you have read, or heard of, the fiery articles, one following another, breathed forth by the pen of
the learned jurist, free writer, and able journalist, publisher of the magazine "The Economy," Dr. "Louis Amaral," and published in the great newspapers of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, whence the leading papers of the other states of this country took them up—articles in which he carried against the enemies of the Arabs a splendid campaign, the legions of right advancing in it behind the armored cars of legal proofs and historical facts, pouring abundant logic down upon the drivel of the Zionists and their claims. Some of them dared to enter his office to argue; he rebuked them; they flared up; and he threw them out trailing the tails of disgrace, their heads in the dust. Nor was this ally of right against wrong content with enlightening Brazilian public opinion: he has undertaken to translate these articles of his into the English language, and will publish them all, beside the Portuguese original, in his magazine when it appears, so that thousands upon thousands of readers of the tongue of "Shakespeare" in America, England, and the rest of the inhabited world may peruse them; and the magazine will be sent to the higher Arab bodies and the official quarters, that hundreds of copies may be distributed to the governments of the world, its leaders, and its chief statesmen.
Here is a stranger to you who has answered the call of his living conscience and done you a kindness beside which any reward, however great, is small. So call together your brethren in the town where you reside, and order, with Arab open-handedness, a quantity of copies of the said number, and present them to the schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, the deputies, the leaders, the governors, and the journalists, so that judgment may be set right and your supporters multiply in this cause of death and life. You will, God willing, do it. And you will, with God's help, prevail.
With the greeting of Arabism, and renewed thanks and abundant respect.
From the Village Poet
Among last month's events: the International Women's Union invited the Eastern countries to attend a women's social congress in the capital of Sweden, to acquaint the East with social life and the methods followed to invigorate it... The Lebanese Arab Women's Federation delegated the Misses Alvira Jureidini and In'am al-Saghir, and the Cooperation Club delegated the Misses Salma Bajjani and Rose Hawi. A letter has reached us from our delegate to this congress, Miss Alvira Jureidini; we pass on the most important of what it contains to the readers of "The Woman's Voice," hoping that Miss Jureidini will always keep us supplied with news of this important congress.
1 – In Stockholm, the capital of
Sweden, there is a public library with 28 branches. This library holds 7,000,000 volumes. It has a special wing for the little ones, containing 20,000 books. Any child at all is allowed to take whatever books he wishes, free of charge, on condition that he return the books at the appointed time. The officials rarely find any difficulty in enforcing this rule—even with the children! In this wing there is a round room where stories are read to the children once a week; and the children may be seen in this library—most of them under ten years old—reading
with profit and eagerness, as if they were twenty years of age!
2 – Lebanon was represented at the International Red Cross congress, held in Stockholm last month, by Mrs. Rose Kettaneh and Miss Eva Helou. Mrs. Kettaneh spoke—that zealous, patriotic lady, ardent for the solution of our national causes. She delivered an address, at a general meeting held in the Parliament building in Stockholm, in the name of the Lebanese Red Cross and in the name of humanity, in which she set forth the question of the Palestinian refugees and the painful condition in which they find themselves. She was the first lady to represent Lebanon; her address was most felicitous... and in it she won the admiration of all, and their sympathy for our cause...
3 – At one of the private receptions, the hostess spoke, welcoming the members and begging them to feel as free as if they were in their own countries. Miss Alvira Jureidini then rose, at the prompting of the president of the International Women's Union, Dr. "Reid," and delivered a word of thanks on behalf of the congress delegates. This is what she said:
"In the name of the delegates of all the Eastern countries, I thank Dr. Reid for affording us this happy opportunity—the opportunity of coming to know this great, rising country... My sisters, ladies of Sweden: we left Lebanon with the fire raging in sister Palestine. But the rare hospitality we have known among you, and the kindness and warmth we meet with from you—all this has made us forget, if only for a while, that we came from a land of wars and blood."
From an interview given by the eminent lady Alice Kandaleft Cosma, an official in the Syrian section of the United Nations organization, to an American newspaper, in which she said: "The women of the Arabs, one and all, have now acquired the latest fashions of modern dress; and the only rights the women of the Arabs do not enjoy are political rights—and these are not far out of reach, because, when the Arab states were shown the United Nations organization's proposal concerning woman's political rights, no voices were raised in opposition to this proposal!
"Among the resolutions of the