• With Mr. Michel Toma, Commissioner of Tourism and Summering.

• The committee for emigrants drawn from the women's organizations, headed by Mrs. Heneni Tarcha.

• An important program in preparation for the tourism year 1955.

• The importance of local color in all tourism.

• A profit of one hundred million Lebanese lira.

We bid farewell to this changeable interval between winter and spring, its gusts alternating between the scorching simoom and the gentle east wind, and with it we bid farewell to the woolen clothes that shielded us from the ravages of the dying north wind, welcoming as a happy omen the coming of summer,

whose first easterly breezes are about to occupy our dear horizon, to breathe into our land a season that will bring back its delights and joys.

I set out for the Commissariat of Tourism and Summering, attending to a few errands on my way, the passers-by jostling me and I them — now a motorcar bearing down on me, and now I upon it. Amid the din I made out persons whose looks proclaimed them strangers, guests of our shores for the first time, surveying its landmarks and feeling out its features with an eager, absorbing eye, making no effort to hide the onlooker's curiosity and his keenness of observation. At last my rounds brought me to the foot of a gleaming marble staircase, which I climbed at once, fearing to be late for the appointment fixed with Mr. Toma. And hardly had I reached the third floor, which the Commissariat occupies, when the usher showed me into the elegant office, and the gracious Commissioner motioned me to the fine leather chair, to offer me some information 'for The Woman's Voice.'

Lebanon is a country of tourism, of which summering forms one part: one cannot point to any month of the year in which Lebanon is without tourists, thanks to the special attraction

nature has bestowed upon its seasons and months. Today, for example, in spring, the coasts and the ancient sites are bright with tourist parties and with European and American cultural excursions. Then in summer the sons of the Arab lands make for the oasis of their desert, Lebanon, on the peaks and in the mountains — nor do we except the coasts, for, relative to the heat of their climate, they see no harm in resorting to the sea and its air, charged with nourishing, refreshing azote.

And the number of tourists in autumn exceeds that of summer. No wonder: it is then a season whose mildness embraces coast and mountain alike, amid the flood of ripened fruit, while a soft breeze, moist of breath, plays with the branches that have laid down their burden; and there are long nights, all pleasure and serenity, in which the houses of amusement and the gathering-places of every kind play their leading role. Meanwhile the keepers of the hotels fitted for heating are making ready for the coming skiing season — though it ranks below its three brothers, because the Lebanese are as yet but slightly versed in this art, while it abounds in Europe.

And strangely, I found myself at their mention longing for cold and snow — not because I pride myself on skiing, nor because I mourn the departed winter,

but because of the intense heat I had felt after the long running about the markets, before I ended at the Commissariat, where the 'chauffage' had been given free rein through all its rooms! And likewise, whether to control the temperature or to shut out the clamor of the street, the wooden shutter-blinds had been drawn across the wide, tightly closed windows! Naturally, then, I did not hesitate to send a large draught from the glass of Coca-Cola down my throat, and thereafter to express the wish of The Woman's Voice to cast a quick glance over the foreign tourists and the average of what they spend in the country. And Mr. Toma continued —

If we set aside our own national summer visitors from the list of tourists, the nationalities, in the order of their statistical majority, become: Syria, the United States, Jordan, Britain, Turkey, Iraq, France, Egypt, the Saudi Kingdom, Palestine, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Holland, Germany, Kuwait, Iran, Switzerland, and other sources. The following table demonstrates the extent of the progress of tourism