There is no doubt that the event of this season is, above all, the long-awaited Conference of Emigrants. This issue will scarcely be in the readers' hands before the delegations have begun arriving from across the seas, to hold the first comprehensive conference that will acquaint the emigrant half with the resident, and the resident with the emigrant.
"The Woman's Voice" has resolved to take part in this work of acquaintance, which it hopes will bear blessings for both sides, and has decided to bring out a special deluxe issue, to appear in mid-August, in double size and in four languages — Arabic, English, French, and Spanish — a cultural, literary, and artistic document on Lebanon in general and on women's activity in it in particular.
"The Woman's Voice" had entrusted Mrs. Eva Malik, wife of our Minister Plenipotentiary in Washington, with writing for us on the role of woman in the said conference. She has sent us this article, a presentation of some of the great women figures who will take part in it, and she has also sent us a second article recounting the history of the idea of holding the conference and explaining the possibilities of acquaintance and cooperation between the Lebanese and Syrian woman and her sister in the Mahjar. We shall publish that article in our coming special issue. To Mrs. Malik our abundant thanks.
... I shall begin by introducing the wife of the president of the conference, who has worked and is working for the success of this conference in cooperation with her husband, and who will be president of the conference's "Hospitality Committee."
Mrs. Sandra was born in the state of Massachusetts (Mass.). Her father, Mr. Elias Mhanna, is originally from Maarra in Syria, and her mother from Saidnaya; they lived in Damascus and then emigrated to the United States in 1910. Her family numbers seven children, of whom she lost two young men in this last war — they were among the finest and most brilliant of American youth.
Mrs. Sandra received her elementary and higher
education in Rhode Island. Her inclination was chiefly toward artistic matters, so she mastered the science of interior decoration and spent four years in the study of music. She married in 1937 in Washington, the capital, where she made the acquaintance of the famous lawyer Mr. Joseph Saadou, and established her home there; then in 1947 she moved to New York, whither her husband's work had moved, and in that great city is her home today.
As for Mr. Saadou, he is known, despite his
many occupations, for his continual sacrifices in the cause of charitable works and educational projects in the circles of the Arab colony in America. He is one of the founders of the Lebanese Syrian American Federation of the Eastern States, and was president of the Washington Syrian Club, in Washington. Mr. Saadou is in the front rank of those who concern themselves with the Arab causes and among those who raise their voice with the American government concerning its policy in the Arab countries. He was the first to concern himself with the question of the Palestinian refugees, and he helped found the American Office for Near East Relief,
placing his own office in New York at the disposal of the relief office's committee until that committee found premises of its own for its work; it then elected Mr. Saadou treasurer of its fund.
Mr. Saadou came to the United States at the age of sixteen. He settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from its university with a B.A. degree; then he obtained his law degree from another university and entered as a member of the
"Bar Association,"
Mr. Joseph Saadou, president of the conference, and his wife, Mrs. Sandra.