There has come to us from Mr. George Baz a word on the late lamented Labiba Sursock Thabet, which we summarize as follows:
A virtuous lady of standing, she served humanity in ten associations over fifty years. Her parents' two families were noble ones, among the notables of the nation in Lebanon. She was born in Beirut in 1868 and was educated at the school of the Sisters of Nazareth for nine years.
She began her charitable struggle before her twentieth year and continued it to seventy, and she remained a discreet benefactress to the end of her life.
She presided over the family relief associations of 1915; the charitable workshops, the 'Ouvroirs,' 1916–1918, supporting 1,200 needy girls; the humanitarian shelters, 1917–1919, for thousands of children; the French-Lebanese Red Cross, 1921–1924; Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah, 1924–1933; the Women's Union, 1925–1932; and several congresses.
To her belongs the greatest credit for uniting the peaceable associations in the country.
She married Philippe Yaacoub Thabet, one of the men of standing of Beirut and Lebanon, and they were blessed with four sons: George, Michel, Gabriel, and Edouard.
Labiba lived to see her firstborn, George Bey, a deputy for Beirut in the Lebanese Chamber of Deputies, holder of three ministries, and president of the administrative council of the charitable financial associations; and to see her virtuous daughter-in-law, Laure Khlat, dean of several associations and founder of the Women's Solidarity of the Lebanese associations.
She received the Ottoman Order of Compassion during the First World War, 1914–1918, for the efforts she expended in the cause of good.
She lived 82 years in full possession of her mental powers and her lively feeling, and God took her to Himself on February 15, 1950. May God grant us others like her.
Sixty girls of the guides of the Muslim Scouts at the Islamic Makassed College made an excursion to the monastery of Bkerke and to Harissa, where they listened to a kind word of encouragement from His Beatitude the Patriarch, and saw the magnificent church and the wondrous statue of Our Lady of Lebanon. From there they moved on to the mountains of Kesrouan and became acquainted with the many Lebanese villages scattered there.
The excursion of the guides of the Muslim Scouts was a great success, despite the falling rain and the foul weather—and no wonder,
for among the marks of a guide are her steadfastness in the face of difficulties and her meeting of dangers with a smiling face and a lofty spirit.
"Edited by the Committee for the Entertainment of Children, attached to the Lebanese Society for Public Health"
Notice: The Committee for the Entertainment of Children pledges, in cooperation with the magazine "The Woman's Voice" and the various schools and institutions concerned with the young, to bring out a page in every issue.
And it hopes that the young and the grown-up alike will send us their suggestions to the committee's post-office box, No. 276, at the American University of Beirut.