With the Guides

It is among the harbingers of good and blessing, and the grounds for optimism and glad tidings, in the world of the Arab woman in Lebanon — especially in this critical stage of her life, in which she defends her threatened existence and struggles for her equal rights, striving to show the whole world that she is competent for the rights she demands and worthy of that lofty station which sets her on an equal footing with man in every field — I say it is among the harbingers of good and blessing that the Lebanese woman should see in the blessed Girl Guides movement her right arm, her manifest supporter, and the straight path that leads her to that exalted station which she was created to occupy in society.

And no wonder: for this Guides movement has as its first aim the preparation of a generation of aware girls — prepared in body, mind, and spirit — so that they may be sound in their bodies, enlightened in their minds, noble in their character, and believing in their hearts; girls who rise to the aid of the homeland whenever it calls them, who succor the wounded and answer the cry of the distressed and the call of the afflicted, and who strive ever to win the affection of others and capture their admiration and esteem through their lofty aims, their precious sacrifice, and their glorious devotion — urged on in all this by firm resolve and sound judgment, and driven by a great faith in God.

God has provided this blessed movement, since its founding in 1945, with aware and enterprising leaders who have carried it steadily forward and taken blessed strides with it toward perfection... No sooner had the enterprising leader Miss Amina al-Nu'mani withdrawn from it in 1950, after the great services and outstanding works she had rendered it, than there was sent to it an energetic, tireless leader who has borne it forward into the widest and highest fields, turning heart and soul toward raising its standing, devoting her efforts and her time to spreading it and laboring for its flourishing: none other than Miss In'am al-Saghir.

And since among the lofty principles of Scouting are love of the homeland, devotion in its service, and the raising of its name high among the nations; and since the Guide is a sister and a friend to all, sparing no effort to become acquainted with her sister Guides in every land and to strengthen the bonds of friendship among them; and since she is by nature inclined toward the love of knowledge and discovery that travel affords her, and fond of the delightful Scouting life whose foundation is self-reliance —

we, the Guides of the Muslim Scouts, made a journey through the regions of Syria, to visit its flourishing towns, to consolidate the bonds of brotherhood between it and the sister country Lebanon, to become acquainted with our sisters, the enterprising Guides of that sister country, and to spread the call of the blessed Scouting movement in those thriving lands.

Our journey began on the morning of Sunday, March 12 of last month, and ended on the evening of Saturday the 31st. We spent in it a full week brimming with joy and delight, among people from whom we met nothing but honor and welcome. They received us with their beaming faces and their famed hospitality in Damascus, and we remained in the care of their active Scouts for two whole days, during which we visited the most important ancient monuments and the architectural and scholarly institutions of the city, the Fragrant City. And after we had been bidden farewell with the same warmth

and honor with which we had been received, we set out with Homs as our destination; we delighted our eyes with its limpid lake, then bade farewell to its famous sugar mills and headed for Hama, where its captivating natural scenery and its gushing waterwheels received us — and these are as nothing when measured against the generosity and open-handedness of its people and the welcome we met from them during the night we spent as guests of their flourishing Scout commissariat. From Hama we went on to Aleppo the Gray, where we had the honor of becoming acquainted with a personality the like of whom we are rarely given the chance to meet: a man in whom the loftiest meanings of Scouting are gathered and made manifest in their noblest forms — resolve, faith, and firmness of conviction, together with generosity, sacrifice, and high culture. He is the Scout commissioner in Aleppo, Mr. Nash'at al-Warraq, who has taken, and still takes, blessed strides forward in the Scouting movement... We were the objects of his warm welcome and of the honoring of his stalwart Scouts; thanks to them we toured the city of Aleppo the Gray and its landmarks, including its immortal citadel, delighted our eyes with its enchanting views, and became acquainted there with a number of our sister Guides. Then, after spending two nights there, we left for Latakia, where we visited its landmarks and were honored by its beloved Guides. On the second night we set out for Tartus and then Arwad, that modest island crouching in the midst of the sea, hymning the greatness of the Creator and glorifying His handiwork. On the same day we set out for Tripoli, which was the journey's end, for by way of it we reached Beirut, our hearts overflowing with longing and yearning to see our dear homeland, in which we had left family and friends — thankful for the happy circumstances that allowed us to make this delightful journey, from which we came away with valuable knowledge of our country Syria, where we witnessed aspects of progress and harbingers of advancement and renaissance that were a source of joy to us as Arab women citizens who wish the good of Arabism before all else.

And if we admired in our Syrian brothers their warmth and their honoring of us, we admired in them also an overflowing, surging patriotism, filling hearts and breasts, which has stamped every landmark of the country with its own stamp, melted it in its own crucible, and brought it forth brimming with the national spirit, free of any foreign trace, however small. All this thanks to their mighty zeal, their firm resolve, and their strong faith in God and in their homeland, which made them fight valiantly to expel the foreigner from their country and to cleanse it of every landmark that reminded them of the era of the ill-omened Mandate... And no sooner had they achieved their independence than they set to work — enthusiasm firing their souls, faith filling their hearts, and hope flooding their breasts — building and constructing, improving and renewing, advancing and rising, watching over the interests and the good of their country, sparing no effort for its advancement and flourishing... Their efforts bore fruit and ripened, and their fruit was those thriving national factories, such as the glass factory in Damascus, and the cotton, weaving, and dyeing works there as well, and the sugar, alcohol, and oils factory in Homs, and the Agricultural

College in Latakia — all of them supplying the country's needs and freeing it from foreign production; and their harvest was those advanced, purely national universities which provide the rising generation with all the stages of higher education in its ramified branches, such as the Syrian University in Damascus with its faculties of engineering, medicine, law, sciences, etc. ... and the institutions that secure for poor citizens the means of education and of earning a living by the most honorable of ways, such as the Agricultural College in Latakia.

These are the harbingers of a blessed renaissance which, if they prove anything, prove the efforts of an aware government watchful over the interests of the people, sparing no effort to secure its needs and provide for its comfort. This is manifest in its extension of the automatic telephone throughout the country, in answer to the citizens' wishes and to ease their business. And they prove the extent of the people's renaissance and advancement, and their sincerity and devotion in the service of their homeland and the exaltation of its word.

And as we behold the harbingers of this auspicious renaissance, we cannot but admire it in our Syrian brothers, just as we admired in them their noble sentiment and their good spirit which — despite the scheming of schemers to smother it in the breast — will not be denied, but shows itself in its most splendid and noble forms, in the abundant warmth and the magnificent reception with which they favored us during our visit to them; a sign that this spiritual bond, and this Arab nationalism which ties us to them with the firmest of ties, will remain forever the knot that defies the scheming colonizers; and that Syria and Lebanon were created to be twin siblings, and will forever, God willing, honor this sacred bond by which nature has joined them.