Literature as the President's Guest

The Arabs used to rear their children with an athletic upbringing full of chivalry and of the military spirit; the backs of horses have never known a finer horseman than the Arab rider, and military character in history has known nothing nobler than the Arab warrior's character. And when the military spirit weakened among the Arab peoples, that vast empire melted away...

I have said that the plan of compulsory conscription is a national phenomenon among nations that wish to live in dignity, and that today, in this life of ours which has come to be threatened from every side, it becomes a pressing necessity which we must not ignore; nor must we listen to the weaklings among us who make their attempts to stifle the vitality of this nation...

We do not want for Lebanon military glories and great conquests, for Lebanon's mission in the world is better than conquests: it is the home of the authentic spirit, and we want it always a goodly home for the right. But what we want for Lebanon, we do not want as a cowardly right. Nor do we want Lebanon the home of a bewildered, despairing spirit.

We want a strong Lebanon in which are gathered the virtues of spiritual strength, of firm character, and of strong conviction; and we want for Lebanon a youth who stand guard over this clear sky.

Blessed be the youth of my country, on the day they hunger and thirst and bear hunger and thirst with patience, and cross mountains and plains on foot — walking, walking briskly — in cold and in heat, and make their bed of the earth in the open with their rifles and their guns.

And we shall never have this rising generation we want except by way of compulsory military service, which will fuse our strengths into one strength, our wills into one will, our classes into one class.

On that day — the day we all stand upon the soil of our homeland, paying the tax of blood for every span of our soil that is lost — the youth of my country will become heroes, and the mothers of my country mothers of heroes, and my country will become a great country...

Since Bashir the Great, the great palace at Beiteddine has stood mournful and silent, looking about and seeing in Lebanon no radiant countenance to shine in its halls and make the frowning halls shine with it — halls longing for the countenance of men and the voices of men of letters...

And on the day the gates of this great palace opened, they opened upon a noble countenance among men, upon a face from which goodness pours forth, and a great heart from which knowledge springs...

The face of a president among men, than whom Lebanon in its modern history has known none nobler, more tender, or more gentle...

The appearance of Sheikh Beshara El-Khouri at the palace of Beiteddine was the dearest of appearances since the great Emir; it carried with it the pride of Lebanon, its honor and its glories... And on that day the courts of the palace heard the echoes of footsteps bearing the majesty of great men. And yesterday, at the invitation which the master of the palace extended to the men of letters and the thinkers of Lebanon, those historic courts remembered the age of Bashir the Great, when the echoes of the poets resounded through their corners.

The men of the pen in Lebanon — and the day of Beiteddine was the dearest day of their lives — will not forget this gesture from His Excellency Sheikh Beshara El-Khouri, president of the first independent republic in Lebanon.