the first president; then we saw you representing your country in the United Nations. So today you are a part of all this world; today you enjoy an exalted station, and in the measure of the importance of your world position we place in Your Ladyship today a great hope and heavy burdens and grave responsibilities; and in the measure of the talents God has bestowed on you, humanity demands of you work and fruit.

You have heard, gracious lady, from the president of the Lebanese Women's Union, and have heard of the effort of the Lebanese woman and of the works she performs in helping to raise the social, cultural, and political level. And now you hear a voice representing the women's unions in the Arab coun-tries — Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine — voicing wishes that it raises to you as a woman who understands woman's nature and feels woman's feeling, and as an astute stateswoman who has plunged into the depths of politics, grasped its secrets, and perceived its dangers and its harms, and who would wish that mankind might be spared the fires of its war and its destruction, so that it might build a better world for us, for our chil-dren, and for our grandchildren — as the late lamented President, Mr. Roosevelt, appealed to the world.

I address you on behalf of the women of Arabdom who join in striving to find a just solution to a great social problem created by unjust political rulings, which have shaken their faith in human justice and made them lose confidence in international laws, because in truth these are not applied to all human beings alike. We see the world struggling, sacrificing much, to bring about a human unity and a world unity, to preserve this earth and to protect man from the sons of man.

I do not conceal from you that in the East doubts and suspicions beset us, so that we stand before

world events dismayed, because of the grievous wound that has befallen the Arab nation. We cannot ignore the truth or neglect this human aspect, for it is of the greatest importance; confidence and reassurance must be restored, so that we may be in harmony and work together in a spirit of amity and brotherhood.

Woman's help in building a better world and a sounder society is a stamp that marks our present age. Why, then, do you not defend the plundered right before the great powers that hold authority and

execution, restoring to humanity its dishonored honor and carrying to the world the torch of right and guidance and the message of peace? Thereby you would record a great human victory and an immortal women's glory, which history would inscribe to your name.

Ibtihaj Kaddoura President of the General Arab Women's Union