Tree Day

Among the sweetest days in Lebanon is Tree Day. We keep its feast every year, acknowledging the debt we owe to those green friends: they bestow beauty upon nature, they are kohl to our eyes wherever we turn them their way, they grant us the goodness of their fruits, and they shade us so that loaf and cup and they may come together — and behold, the earth, as Omar said, is Paradise!

And if there be among us anyone who pays the tree no heed and grants it no great share of his attention, let him go back to Maeterlinck's masterpiece "The Blue Bird," and pause at a scene — one of many enchanting scenes — in which he will see the trees as living beings that feel as we do, and like us suffer, protect, and live.

Lebanon celebrated Tree Day on the third of December: at the invitation of the Friends of the Tree Society, a great throng gathered on the Corniche, headed by His Excellency the President of the Republic, who has never ceased to favor the festival with his care since he assumed the presidency. His Excellency delivered a splendid address, other speeches were read, then the trees were planted and varied displays were presented.

* Mr. Nadim Dimashqiyah, formerly Consul General in Canada, has arrived in Lebanon with his wife, returning from the duties of the post which he filled with all competence and devotion. Mr. Dimashqiyah will take up a new post in the central administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.