• At twelve o'clock on the seventeenth of November, 1948, the UNESCO conference opened its third session in Beirut, in the cultural city built by the Lebanese government.

• The sitting was opened by the head of the Mexican delegation, in his capacity as president of the conference; he spoke in French.

• The address of the Lebanese Minister of National Education, His Excellency Hamid Frangieh, was in Arabic.

• Those present agreed that the speech of His Excellency the President of the Lebanese Republic at the opening ceremony was a literary and intellectual master-piece, in which His Excellency proved himself one of the masters of profound thought and splendid eloquence. The speech has been printed in an elegant booklet in the three languages: Arabic, French, and English.

• It was noticed at the opening ceremony that the number of elegant ladies was great.

• Many of the men of thought in this country complained that they were not invited to the opening ceremony.

• At the first of the conference's sittings, His Excellency Hamid Frangieh was elected president of this session.

• At the sitting devoted to considering the admission of new members into the organization, argument and debate grew heated, until some feared that it would lead to a deviation from the principles which the men of UNESCO preach. Lebanon succeeded in having the exclusion of the Jewish bodies from the conference approved.

• It was noticed, with much astonishment and surprise, that the head of the Indian delegation was among the most vehement defenders of the necessity of

inviting the Jewish bodies to attend the conference; and when Lebanon presented its proposal to admit those bodies that had accepted the invitation — the Jewish bodies not being among them — the head of the Indian delegation remained for

• It was noticed that three del-egations count women personal-ities among their members: the Indian delegation, the American delegation, and the Lebanese delegation. The Lebanese del-egation includes three ladies: Mrs. Widad Maqdisi Cortas, Mrs. Najla Saab, and Mrs. Joumana Ahdab.

a while unable to conceal the signs of agitation on his face.

• Radio Moscow said, in its broadcast directed to the Arab peoples, that the UNESCO con-ference continues to propagate the reactionary principles professed by the capitalists of the world, and said that the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean see no benefit in these conferences... And Russia does not take part in this conference..

• Among the members of the Cuban delegation is Dr. Chidiac, who is of Lebanese origin.

• At one of the conference's sittings the head of the Argentine delegation rose and began to speak in Spanish; the president reminded him that the two official languages are French and English, whereupon

he began to speak in French, rendering each of his sentences into Spanish.

The head of the delegation of the Republic of Peru followed his example, and this act aroused the admiration of those present.

• The Lebanese government intends, after the close of the UNESCO conference, to place the city of culture at the disposal of the Lebanese Academy, to make of it a national university.

• On the fourth of December the exhibition of education and instruction was opened in a pavilion belonging to UNESCO. Its preparation was entrusted to Mr. Fouad Ephrem al-Boustani, assisted by the lawyer Miss Mona Haik. The private institutes and the government schools of Lebanon have taken part in it, and the Syrian and Egyptian governments are also taking part.

• The UNESCO organization concerns itself with translating the outstanding books of the world, and has adopted a program of choosing one hundred of the world's books from among those published before the year 1955, in order to translate them into all the languages that do not yet know them — this in the endeavor to unify, little by little, the direction of human thought...

• Forty-four states are taking part in the UNESCO conference; their flags were fluttering over the entrances of the UNESCO city which the Lebanese govern-ment prepared.

• Most of this country's weekly and monthly papers have brought out outstanding issues for this occa-sion, while the daily papers devote large pages every day showing the activity of the conferees, and Radio Lebanon broadcasts every day the speeches delivered at the general meetings.

• Dr. Jaime Torres Bodet, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, was