The Word of the Lebanese Women's League

It is right that the Lebanese Women's League should salute His Excellency the venerable Sheikh Bechara El-Khoury, President of the Lebanese Republic, on the occasion of the anniversary of the renewal of His Excellency's mandate. And it was right that I should carry this salute to His Excellency, filled with confidence that the era we are entering will make beloved Lebanon still more an era of union and understanding among all its sons; an era of maturity and awakening for all citizens, that they may go forward in understanding their rights and in grasping their duties — and there are no rights without duties — in keeping with the saying of His Excellency the President, where he says:

"Lebanon is the homeland of all, the house of all, and one family for all. Muslim and Christian are its two eyes and its two arms; its government and its people are its two flanks and its two guardians; its official and its proprietor are its keepers and its laborers; and all are answerable before conscience and duty for upholding its independence, the stability of its conditions, and the safeguarding of its dignity and its sovereignty."

It is a memorable saying, deep in meaning and far-reaching in import.

If the Lebanese Women's League has one wish, it is that every single member of this dear homeland should take in the meaning and import of these words, and the responsibilities and obligations they lay upon every Lebanese, inside the government or outside it, at the head of the political groupings or among the common people... Yes — all are answerable before conscience.

The time has come for all Lebanese to be convinced, after every trial and every searching look, that this beloved little homeland which is our homeland is truly a precious possession, and that we are fortunate if it has fallen to our lot to be among its children.

And the time has come for all Lebanese to know that no arrow can be aimed at the heart of this precious possession — at the heart of this homeland, its sovereignty, its independence, and its dignity — more poisonous than the arrow of division among its sons, and none more dangerous than heedlessness of the perils that press in from every quarter in this

grave stage of history, above all of the history of the Middle East.

If we touch on such matters at a moment when we are offering our salute to His Excellency the President of the country on the anniversary of the renewal of his mandate, it is because we are certain that such occasions are fitting for speaking of the homeland's serious causes; for we are convinced that the good of every homeland lies in the hands of its good men who watch over its destinies — and in their forefront, His Excellency.

And if the Lebanese Women's League has yet another wish, it is that the Lord prolong the life of His Excellency our Sheikh, the President, that he may remain the experienced man, the wise leader, and the skillful pilot, steering this country to the safe shore through lowering skies in a grave stage of world history.

The Lebanese woman, as she joins in honoring this anniversary, offers her thanks to His Excellency the First Lebanese for the generous stand he took on the question of the recognition of her political rights in the Lebanese Republic. And now: the Lebanese Women's League — nay, all the women of Lebanon — are hopeful that what lies beyond this anniversary which we honor tonight will be an era in which a law appears that removes forever from the path of the Lebanese woman all the worn-out, artificial barriers standing between her and the exercise of her natural rights — the more so as we see homelands counted as lagging behind Lebanon in the caravan of progress that have already taken this blessed step. And how often have the international bodies and organizations working in the social and intellectual field shown their intense astonishment that its like has not been achieved in Lebanon! May the opening that follows this anniversary, in the coming October — the date of the opening of the parliamentary session — be a proclamation of the rights of the Lebanese woman, and may this event be counted among the achievements added to the era of His Excellency's mandate.

I repeat my salute to His Excellency the First Lebanese, with the hope and the prayer that God may grant him success in completing the good of this homeland and the happiness of its people.

Long live Lebanon — a homeland for all and one family for all, as His Excellency its President says — and long live His Excellency.