from every quarter. Edvick upheld her confidence in woman, and affirmed with it that woman will come out of all this by making for herself a personality all her own — holding of the spirit of tradition enough to preserve for her her authentic qualities, and of the imported enough to guarantee her keeping step with an age whose distances have drawn so close that approximation and relative harmony have become a necessity for the running of this world...
The woman of today face to face with reality — that was Edvick in her lecture. A woman deserving of esteem, deserving of tribute, and deserving of that confidence which the lecturer so generously placed in her.
• It was a most auspicious beginning for the Union of University Women to choose Dr. Kamal al-Hajj to open its series of public lectures for this year, on Thursday evening, January 13.
The lecturer was introduced by the president of the Union of University Women, Dr. Zahia Kaddoura, who touched upon the whole range of his activity in the fields of thought and education, and his championing of women's causes.
The subject of Dr. Kamal al-Hajj's lecture was "Atheism in Jean-Paul Sartre," or "Arrogant Faith." The lecturer compared the idea of God in Descartes and in Sartre, and laid bare the elements of perplexity in the existentialist doctrine, citing passages from Sartre's own words. The audience was unanimous in its appreciation of the conclusion the lecturer reached, and left the hall of the Ministry of Education in the elation of having listened .. And so that its benefit may reach everyone, the reader will find on page 8 the cream of what Dr. Kamal al-Hajj said in his lecture.
• "An Anxious Nation" was the subject of the valuable lecture delivered, at the invitation of the Lebanese Women's League, on Friday, January 14, by Mrs. Anbara Salam Khalidi.
As was to be expected, the hall of the Ministry of Education was crowded with listeners, in view of the distinguished literary standing our woman of letters holds in cultivated circles — the more so since this voice had been absent from us for a time, only to return purer and of farther reach ...
With deliberation and understanding Mrs. Anbara treated her subject. She went on to analyze the causes of anxiety in our nation — political, religious, cultural, and social — proceeding step by step with great tact and great boldness, and concluded with a call to gather the ranks together, to unify the school curricula, to bring hearts into accord, and to rely upon national values rather than foreign ones.
Mrs. Anbara Salam is a pillar for us, firm of foundation — suffice it that she has joined elegance of pen to depth of thought and eloquence of speech ...
The Social Affairs Committee of the Young Women's Christian Association issued invitations for noon on Wednesday, January 12, to its monthly gathering at the American University Alumni Club. The gathering takes the form of a luncheon during which one of Lebanon's men of opinion speaks. The subject of the latest talk was "Some Problems of Administration in Lebanon," treated by Mr. Philippe Takla, formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs, of National Education, of Finance, of Posts and Telegraphs, and of Economy. The lecturer was introduced by Mrs. Leila Sawaya, vice-president of the University Women Graduates' Club, and the lecture
was rendered into English by Mrs. Wadad Cortas, secretary of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts.
Mr. Takla made a successful tour of his subject, showing how it falls to the public administration to preserve security, dispense justice, carry out public works, safeguard morals, rear the rising generation, fight poverty, ignorance, and disease, organize the individual's life within the framework of the nation, watch over that organization, and supervise its proper execution. As for what the administration has actually achieved in all these fields... that is another study!...
The fundamental factor that thrusts Lebanon into a critical predicament and a general administrative crisis is — in Mr. Takla's view — the absence of confidence between the authority and the people. This people looks upon its rulers as hirelings living at its expense without giving anything in return. It disobeys their orders, criticizes them woundingly, and creates a complex of despair and defeatism toward the state. Love and concord are missing between the rulers and the people in Lebanon!
Moreover, the evil of cheap local politics has seeped through the apparatus of the state's departments, resting upon two corrupt foundations: sectarianism and electoral interest.
After a close analysis of the factors and causes that have led, or may lead, to the collapse of the authority's prestige, the lecturer concluded by saying that leadership in Lebanon is missing for want of administrative education, and no remedy will avail before work is done to root out the disease.