On Tuesday night, June 8, the Saint-Georges Hotel saw a grand ball given by the Saint George Hospital foundation. The terrace overlooking the sea was thronged with thousands of guests, most of them of the choicest élite of this country. And what shed a spirit of enthusiasm over the party was the presence of His Excellency the President, only one day after his return from the journey to the two Americas.

The ladies of the committee, headed by Mrs. Rose Assi, displayed an energy that astonished the company — who had long since learned to take the success of this annual party for granted — a party rightly counted the party of the season.

The evening was distinguished by a display of Lebanese elegance to rival the elegance of Paris, and by the most devoted and loftiest of efforts, as polished Beirut society scores a victory of merrymaking in the cause of good works.

As a result of these efforts the hospital committee succeeded in gathering fifty thousand liras, to be earmarked for completing the renovation and equipping of the hospital — from the donations, the price of the tickets, the proceeds of the evening, the price of the lottery tickets, and finally from President Chamoun's gift of five thousand liras, and then from his gift of the fountain pen presented to him by a Lebanese soldier in the Argentine army, which fetched sixteen thousand liras at auction — and thus the fifty thousand liras set a record figure in the work of charity and good.

• The Ministry of Education held — for the first time in Lebanon — a competition for the championship of Lebanon in track and field for girls' schools, in the junior, girls', and young

women's classes. The number of contestants in this championship reached one hundred and eighty pupils from eighteen schools, among which the following stood out: Abrin, al-Amiliyya, the Laïque, the New School, the Immaculate Conception, al-Taqaddum State School, Ras Beirut, Achrafieh State School, the First Girls' School, the New Girls' School, Wadi Chahrour, Junior College, and Raml al-Zaydaniyya. It is a happy sign — and the first time in the history of this country that a competition of this kind has been held for girls — and we watched them practicing the high jump, the sprint, and the broad jump, something never seen before.

• On Saturday, June 5, the Village Welfare Society held a kermesse at the Nahda School in Achrafieh, exhibiting the products of the Bishtfin center —

layettes, carpets, preserves, and other national handiwork which this society labors to revive and bring back to life. The affair achieved a large measure of success, thanks to the efforts of the society's president, Mrs. Loreen Rihani, and her fellow members.

• At the British Cultural Institute, the Society for Aid to the Blind invited the public to a musical program whose proceeds were earmarked for the institution. The “Musical Youth” ensemble of its founder Sami Abu Sawan took part in presenting the program, and Mrs. Anissa Najjar spoke, thanking the audience and those in charge of the Society for Aid to the Blind, headed by Mr. Sami Salibi; finally she called upon fathers and educators to direct their children toward social service and toward an understanding of its spirit, in keeping with its humane mission.

• “The Struggle of the Human Soul Toward Immortality” — such was the subject of the intellectual lecture delivered recently by the Syrian woman of letters Miss Inaya Ramzi in the hall of the Ministry of Education, at the invitation of