The text of the speech with which Mrs. Alice Nakkash opened the General Assembly of the Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon, on Thursday, June 7, 1951, under the presidency of the Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Anis Salih, who presented the association, in the name of His Excellency the President of the Republic, with 300 Lebanese lira in appreciation of its efforts.

The Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon, that esteemed association of public utility, is not unknown to you, for you have already become acquainted with some aspects of its activity in its early days, particularly in the field of labor inspection in workshops and fac-tories to ensure the application of the law of April 17, 1935 — this immediately upon its founding at the hands of its first members, Messrs. Sami al-Solh, Alfred Naccache, Professor Bianchi, and Father Lejensel. To carry out the inspection the Union enlisted six sworn inspectresses with official standing, who between 1940 and 1945 drew up 1,039 inspections concerning the commencement of work, the kinds of work forbidden to children, the required age, the medical certificate, the com-pulsory rest, la pause obligatoire, the prohibition of night work, the ventilation of the premises prepared for work, the lighting of factories, sanitary installations, and protection against machinery.

As for the reports which the inspectresses drew up, they were all inspired by a humane spirit, not by any desire for retribution or revenge.

One result of that work was

that the inspectresses lent their experience to the authorities, proposing to them amendments to the aforementioned law of April 17 and issuing a bulletin on labor inspection in Lebanon; they also prepared numerous reports and useful statistics on the kinds of factories and their number in Beirut and Lebanon.

Accordingly the condition of the worker in the factories improved, and working hours fell from 10 and 11 a day to 8 and 9, between 1936 and 1946.

Regrettably, however, in 1945 this work passed to the Department of Social Affairs in the Ministry of Economy, and since then the work and the inspections have come to a halt — despite the reports we submitted and the efforts we made.

Yet there remained to the Union for the Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon another task, which it had begun to undertake in 1939: the care of delinquent minors.

In this field we are pleased to say that our Union has rendered the authorities an important service. For it helped to bring about special legislation for delinquents and the creation of the juvenile courts; and it contributed effec-tively to the establishment of the Juvenile Reform Institute, at the hands of numerous specialists, among whom I mention Mr. Georges Sassi, who rendered the Union and the authorities many services.

The Union likewise approached the Ministry of National Education to have certain teach-ers charged with the care of delinquent minors in the annexed districts, regarding this work as a first step to be followed by a

second, in which specialists would be appointed in place of the present delegates. That may not come about until a special cadre of social assistants is created for the juvenile courts.

And now I have learned, esteemed Director, that you have appointed Miss Marie Rizk to the juvenile court in the Bekaa. You have thereby taken the second step, and it falls to us to thank you for your zeal, as it falls to us to thank Mr. Nasri Haddad for the efforts he made to have Miss Rizk — a student of the Lebanese School for Social Training and one of the trainees in our Union — appointed as a judicial assistant.

Two years ago a medical committee attached to the Union was formed, composed of Doctors Oscar Chidiac, Eileen Rosko, and Henri Badaro and Professor