Last month, at the office of His Excellency Riad Bey al-Solh, President of the Council of Ministers, a ceremony was held for the conferring of the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, presented to him by His Beatitude the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Mark, presented to him by His Beatitude the Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria.
Their Beatitudes were represented by the Metropolitans Salibi, Saba, and Karam, accompanied by a goodly company of the Orthodox clergy. The ceremony was attended by a group of high officials, among them ministers, directors general, and deputies.
Their Graces the Metropolitans Salibi and Karam delivered two addresses, to which the Premier replied with thanks.
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.
The Lebanese government has conferred the gilded Lebanese Order of Merit on Monsieur Faure, successor to the late Edmond Pinard of happy memory. His Excellency the Prime Minister decorated him with the order at a ceremony distinguished by its simple,
family character, paying tribute to the services of the Mission Laïque to Lebanon's rising generation. Monsieur Faure replied with a moving speech in which he recalled the father of lay education in Lebanon and the founder of the two collèges, the late Edmond Pinard.
At the ceremony conferring the gilded Lebanese Order of Merit on Monsieur "Faure," Secretary-General of the Mission Laïque; from left to right: Edouard Abou Joudeh... Count de Chayla... Riad Bey al-Solh... Dr. Raif Abillama... Monsieur Faure... the directress of the Girls' College, Madame Lévy... and Monsieur Blanc, director of the Boys' College.
The girl students of the lay colleges, applauding and laughing... in delight at the decoration — or at the holiday granted by His Excellency the Prime Minister, who stipulated that it fall neither on a Thursday nor on a Saturday...!