• Mrs. Madeleine Arqash has put for-ward a proposal, which she published in the newspapers, calling for the formation of a working committee, comprising representatives of all the women's associations, to take upon itself the defense of woman's rights.

She has asked the government to set aside a compartment in Parliament for the educated woman, and a com-partment in the Municipality, in the Palace of Justice, and in all councils and conferences — to be attended in rotation by the members of the women's associations, so that woman may observe, learn, and acquaint herself with the course of life in all its aspects, in preparation for the exercise of her right at man's side.

Mrs. Arqash adds: And after all this, if the men in power remain bent on refusing to give us our rights in full, it will be for us to depart from the rule of gentleness in our plan — for rights are not granted; they are taken. And it behooves us to prove our existence in decisive fashion.

She proposes as the first step: we women, in all countries, must join hands and, at need, refuse to pay the taxes due from us until we obtain our political rights.

She ends her petition by saying: We demand our rights not to resist men and to oppose them, but to share with them in the building of this homeland; for there is no escaping that men and women must live together, and therefore the building of the world will not be solid unless the two parties join in founding and buttressing its structure.

The Advisory Committee of the Holy Bible held a grand celebration in the chapel of the American University of Beirut on Saturday, the fourth of last month. The celebration was under the patronage of His Excellency the President of the Republic, who dep-utized His Excellency the Minister of National Education to attend it on his behalf. Speaking at the celebra-tion were the Reverend Farid Audeh, head of the Evangelical Community in Syria and Lebanon, who pre-sented an artistic copy of the Holy Bible to be given to His Excellency the President; His Excellency Emir Raif Abi al-Lama; Mr. Jirji Niqula Baz; Archimandrite Ghufrail Salibi; and a representative of the British Bible Society. Mr. Charles Corm sent his excuses, being ill.

Interspersed through the celebration were hymns sung by the church choir under the direction of the musician Arida.

• We have received from the well-known Mahjar poet Mr. Chafic Maalouf his rare gem "Abqar" in its second edition. The poet vowed to himself to bring out his book as a work of art, in which the mold would not lag behind the matter it carries. And so the massive book — which runs to 350 pages of large format and thick paper, and whose verses are all written out by hand — is a garden worthy of the flowers it contains.

The poet prefaced his epic with a long introduction running to 140 pages, in which he included studies in mythology on the beliefs of the Jahiliyya and the legends of the Arabs, and their counterparts among other nations, insofar as they bear on the subject of the book.

He has added new cantos to the matter of the first edition, so that the number of verses in it is now double what it was, and the cantos now number twelve, divided into 42 sections.

On page 8 of this issue we have reproduced the poem "Umayya's Dream," which appears in the canto "An Idle Dream." The poet took its matter from the "Aghani."