In Society

★ The American University of Beirut witnessed, on Saturday, May 23, the first women's vocational conference, organized by the University's alumnae under the guidance of the adviser Mrs. Kerr, and attended by some two hundred girl students from all parts of Lebanon and from among the candidates for admission to the University.

The conference's program continued the whole day long, and a group of specialists, women and men, took part in providing the vocational guidance talks. In the morning session there spoke in succession: Mrs. Edvick Jureidini Shayboub, Amin al-Haddad, Professor Stanley Kerr, Miss Mary Maz, Dr. Edith Morse, Dr. George Khayyat, and Dr. Jamal Karam Harfush.

In the afternoon session there spoke Mr. Shukri Shammas, Mrs. Churchill, Miss Nelly Ayoub, Mr. Leslie Leavitt, Dr. Salwa Nassar, and the two artists Marit Charlton and Salwa Rawda Shoucair.

These talks were followed by circles for discussion, inquiry, and the putting of questions. Guidance films were also shown on some of the women's professions. The students took advantage of their presence at the University to become acquainted with its departments, its library, and its museum. Thus this conference, the first of its kind at the University, served its purpose of preparing the students to gain a comprehensive idea of university life and of the various fields of women's specialization at the American University of Beirut.

★ On May 22, on the great athletic field of the American University of Beirut, the third annual folk-dance festival was held. The aim of these festivals is to revive and encourage folk dancing and folk music in school circles.

A number of schoolgirls and schoolboys took part in presenting the various dances; each school dressed its pupils uniformly, and the result was a model of sound taste.

While we praise the commendable efforts made by the women and men in charge of this popular artistic festival, headed by Mrs. Wallace, we cannot but call their attention to the necessity of confining these efforts to school pupils alone. The traditional "dabkeh" dance, which we cherish and greatly desire to keep in its perfection, came off poorly, because it was entrusted to a strange group of grown-ups who improvised it at the last minute; we would have preferred that a team of our own pupils perform it and give it its due of precision and good presentation.

The Young Women's Charitable Association held, on the stage of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts at Beit Chabab, on Sunday, May 24, 1953, a ceremony of speeches on the occasion of the first anniversary of its founding, under the patronage of Her Ladyship Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun. There spoke at this ceremony His Grace the pastor of the diocese, Bishop Francis Ayoub, praising the works of the association; then Dr. Touma Assaf, physician of the association's dispensary, setting forth the works of the dispensary and the noble services it renders the town; then woman's greatest champion, Mr. Jirji Niqula Baz, and the Reverend Chorbishop Youssef al-Hayek, and the president of the association, Mrs. Matilda Shaoul al-Hayek; and finally the deputy of the Metn, Mr. Michel Doumit, who paid fragrant tribute to the sons of the town of Beit Chabab and their activity in the various fields of learning and industry. All the speakers earned the audience's thanks and its appreciation for the champions of charitable works.

May God take by the hand those who carry on the association's works, that it may continue with firm step toward its ideal aims, with success and good fortune as its allies in its humane and social mission.

★ On the occasion of the anniversary of the birth of Henri Dunant, founder of the international Red Cross, the Lebanese Red Cross society held on the eighth of this May, as is its custom every year, a distribution ceremony for needy Lebanese families, whose number reached one thousand; each family received a portion of bread, eggs, sweets, and other things.

The distribution took place at the office of the Lebanese Red Cross in the presence of Madame Kabira de Freige, president of the Lebanese Red Cross, and most of the administrative members.

★ Sporting circles recently witnessed a great horse show, interspersed with rounds of "jumping over obstacles," in which 25 men and ladies took part, at the riding club in Beirut.

The occasion was honored by the presence of the First Lady of Lebanon, Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun, who herself presented the first winner with the "Cedar Prize" and shook hands with all the riders taking part in the show, in encouragement to them and in appreciation of this refined kind of open-air sport.

Of the fair sex, six ladies took part, among them the wife of Mr. Gabriel Murr, Miss Myrtle Winter of the international Relief and Works organization, and Miss Dixie Booth, who alone carried off one of the prizes.

Miss Dixie Booth is an American, one of the employees of Point Four — tall and blonde, and passionately fond of horseback riding and skiing; she began practicing these two refined sports from her earliest childhood.

When asked the secret of her skill in riding, Miss Booth "modestly" affirmed that the credit for her victory belongs to the graceful horse "Sammy"; but those who saw her on the horse's back could not contain their astonishment at her grace and lightness.

★ On the eighth of this May, Mrs. Faiza Maalouf Antiba delivered an educational lecture at the club of the employees of the Iraq Petroleum Company and its associated companies in Tripoli, on the subject: "Our Educational Problems and How to Treat Them." She reviewed the educational problems arising from the complexity of social, economic, and political life and the interaction of these factors with one another, and summed them up as follows:

First: the problems arising from sectarian education, which gives Lebanese education a denominational stamp that works to divide the members of the nation. She asked that religion be taught in a manner that brings out the traits of affinity among the different denominations, so that religious instruction may become, as it ought to be, a means of unifying the social soul and not an instrument of its fragmentation.

Second: the problems arising from the backwardness of the country's economic condition; and she enumerated the services that education must render for the solution of those problems.

Third: the problems that spring from within the teaching profession itself, chief among them the need for teachers trained in modern educational methods, and for creating in pupils and parents mentalities open to the interest of the nation and its economic, agricultural, and commercial future, and the country's need for working hands trained according to scientific and technical methods.

She concluded her lecture with an appeal to educators, teachers and trainers alike, to unite their efforts to overcome those difficulties and to raise the level of national education.

★ The Women's Committee of the Islamic Orphanage institutions issued invitations, on the seventh of May, to the opening of the charity bazaar in the garden of the Orphanage. The courts and walks of the garden were crowded with the invited guests, at their head His Excellency President Camille Chamoun, who had granted the committee's wish that the bazaar be placed under his patronage. His Excellency moved among the tables accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Zalfa, both showing the utmost admiration for the handwork, splendid in beauty and perfect in workmanship, and giving generously with open hands. The task of making introductions and accompanying the gentlemen of the diplomatic corps was undertaken by the committee's president, Miss Ibtihaj Kaddoura. In addition, His Excellency the President donated, in the name of the Lebanese government, the sum of 5,000 Lebanese liras, after which donations poured in from the people of piety and charity.

A raffle was drawn for a refrigerator, a sewing machine, and other things, and the outcome of the bazaar was a complete success, owing to its good reputation in past years and to the commendable efforts exerted to this end by the members of the committee of the Islamic Orphanage.

* On the occasion of Mothers' Day, Sunday the second of May, Radio Lebanon presented special programs in which a number of men and women of letters took part, among them Mrs. Asma Tubi, Zahia Salman, and Edvick Shayboub. Their talks dwelt on defining the meaning of Mothers' Day, urging the rising generation to give it its due of attention, and honoring motherhood on this day of every year.

Health Guidance Week for Mothers is a new departure in the field of social service, carried out from June 1 to 6 by the Lebanese Child-Welfare Society, headed by Mrs. Zahia Salman, in the district of Musaytbeh, Burj Abi Haidar, and Zarif; assisted by Mr. Rashad al-Arees, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the two societies, the Raising of the Fallen and the Relief of the Poor, which work in these quarters. Mrs. Nazik al-Abid Bayhum has graciously offered the center of the Society for Securing Work for the Refugees of Palestine, which she heads, to serve as a center for showing the guidance films presented by the American Information Service, together with the animated drawings and the models used in guiding mothers in a practical, easy, and feasible way. The students of the American College for Girls, under the supervision of Miss Suad Wakim, will undertake the display of these models and the talks, together with the section of the Public Health Department at the American University of Beirut headed by Dr. Zekin Shakhashiri.

The second part of the program of this week is the visiting of homes and quarters in order to become acquainted with the condition of their inhabitants and to study the possibilities of assisting them on the part of the societies and the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Gifts of clothing, milk, and soap, donated by the shops of Jabr Brothers, "Pepsi-Cola" and "Coca-Cola," Mizan Soap, and others, will be distributed to the children. Mrs. Zahia Salman has sent out circulars setting forth the work of this week and inviting mothers to take part in it.

The Child-Welfare Society intends, with the help of the workers in the field of social service, to establish such a center for every quarter.

I am now on a short tour of the fine-arts exhibitions at the Makassed College for Girls, moving with the directress of the institute, Miss Zahiyah Dughan, through three halls, in each of which a beautiful art appears to me, standing on its own.

The first thing we see is the girls of the home-economics section in their spotless white dress, each doing her share of the work in preparing fine foods of every kind by modern artistic methods; and there is the directress of the section, Miss Samia Zaki, Egypt's delegate, showing you her organized programs in the field of home economics, for training the Makassed girls in all the arts of household management — not cooking only, but sewing, ironing, washing, and the cleaning of metal and wooden utensils.

And in the drawing exhibition we find ourselves listening to the artist Mrs. Zaynab Muhammad Ali, Egypt's delegate, telling her pupils the story of the raw material, that they may bring it forth as living, speaking pictures on the boards prepared for drawing. There you can touch the modern artistic methods with your own hand.

Mrs. Zaynab Muhammad Ali is making of the Makassed girls budding artists who appreciate the effect this beautiful art has upon souls. I took leave of Mrs. Zaynab with my eyes still clinging to the beautiful pictures hanging on the walls of the drawing hall, from the brush of the Makassed pupils.

Then Miss Dughan led me toward the upper floor of the school: "To the factory of the needle, that little instrument which neither you nor I can do without." We entered the room of Mrs. Edith, who received us with cheerfulness and proceeded to stand with me before each piece of the precious handwork, telling me the manner of its making, while I listened and gazed at the heights to which Mrs. Edith's needle has attained — masterpieces of art displayed in coverlets for beds and tables, table napkins, embroidered children's clothes, curtains that are veritable treasures, and the articles of adornment a girl needs for her dress and her elegance.