Ladies and gentlemen,

On this feast day I salute, in the name of the Lebanese woman, beloved Lebanon and the Lebanese people, and His Excellency the President of the Republic, the men of his government, and his helpers in the struggle; and I salute especially the souls of the martyrs who inscribed with their blood the life of the homeland, wishing this homeland progress and prosperity.

Tonight we celebrate the feast of Independence: the lights blaze, the country's flag flutters, and everyone sings of liberty. It is a blessing at which our hearts quiver and by which our heads are lifted. A blessing we obtained seven years ago, when we joined hands, government and people; our word was united and our aims were made one, and we reaped the fruit of solidarity and accord within the ranks of the nation. We have the right to boast that we have rid ourselves of foreign domination and that our rulers are now of our own. This being so, it is our duty to guard our political independence, to make firm its pillars and raise up its edifice, in preservation of this precious heritage that we leave to the rising generation — the most precious thing fathers and grandfathers leave to sons and grandsons. And the Lebanese woman aspires, alongside political independence, to a moral independence, which is the strongest pillar in the life of nations and the renaissance of peoples. Let us then be morally independent, O Lebanese. Let every one of us feel that, like every other one of his countrymen, he has his rights and his duties in nurturing the seeds of independence in the various national fields — the fields of politics, of culture, of economy — and in the stands of sacrifice, self-denial, equality, and brotherhood; for by this alone do we nourish the foundations of independence and repose beneath its spreading shade.

O Lebanese, whatever your kind of work may be: do you perform your duty in it for your conscience, and not for any other motive? Do you care for the interest of your homeland and the interests of your countrymen as you care for your own? Do you obey the laws of the land and respect its statutes? Do you esteem people by their works? Do you weigh an opinion by its truth and not by who said it? Do you live according to the commands of religion? Lofty morals are drawn from the teachings of a God on whom we lean and from whom we draw help — the God of love, of compassion, and of truth. Face these questions, my Lebanese brother; study them, act by their inspiration, and answer them in a way that pleases God. Then you will truly be faithful to the trust and will pay your share in full toward the independence your homeland enjoys — a trust laid upon all our necks. And thereby you will perform the duty of gratitude toward the lord of the country, the father of the Lebanese, who wants his sons to be independent with a moral independence, and their morals to be the morals of masters, not the morals of slaves. For this beloved people — and I am of it, and mine is the honor of speaking tonight in the name of its half — this people, when it says "Long live Lebanon, free and independent," means by Lebanon its free and masterful sons: those who can lift their heads and say, We are independent with a political independence and a moral independence.

The Lebanese woman must also give her opinion on how this lofty goal is to be reached. She holds that we reach it by one road: compulsory national education. In the Lebanese national schools, if they are well administered, the opportunity for national upbringing is afforded: the young generation grows and is reared on brotherhood, equality, love of the homeland, and work for its exaltation; it learns to profess the primal religion of God, not sectarianism and partisanship, and so grows up Lebanese, thinking as a Lebanese and living for Lebanon and the Lebanese, unswayed by the currents of foreign thinking. May God fulfill these hopes at the hands of the responsible men entrusted with the upbringing of the young.

Issue Twelve, Year Six — December 1950