With Mrs. MacCallum, Chargée d'Affaires at the Canadian Legation in Beirut

A statue they wanted woman to be... and a statue she tried to remain. And so she remained — in her guarded vitality and her shrunken, huddled being — giving life without living it, until the age of speed came marching upon us. And the statue stirred!.. It walked, it spoke, it stretched out its hand to give and to take... even in the field of politics... God be praised!

Come to a splendid apartment on Clemenceau Street... to the Legation of Canada... There Mrs. MacCallum works in the representation of her country. She is the only woman in the diplomatic corps here, and her activity is confined to fostering friendship and understanding and to encouraging the movement of trade between her country and ours.

I met her in her workroom... at her desk, over which a woman's hand had played with grace, lending it harmony, taste, and order. I set about spurring my tongue's mettle to begin the talk... to speak... and I set about casting my questions strong, massive, solid, to match the atmosphere — or so I supposed! — and to clear the small great barrier that separated my chair from hers! It was as if she felt it too, for she rose and came to sit beside me, listening to me as I listened to her... and the stream of talk poured forth...!

Such is the magic of chairs... and what magic!

She is happy in my country, and happy to live in it canopied by beauty on this side and on that! She is one of those who love walking in the open air and climbing mountains, and she has found in Lebanon what she used to find in her own country: splendor in nature and beauty of form. Canada is the land of lakes and young forests, and it is counted a summer resort for most of the inhabitants of the United States.

Our lady was born in Turkey and came to know our lands under Ottoman rule; from that time her interest in the Near East has grown day by day. In 1925 she began to write on its affairs and to direct public opinion in North America toward its problems and perplexities. She was living at the time in New York. She worked for two years as a teacher at one of Canada's universities, in the Arctic region — where the sun deserts the day for a stretch of time, where the cold wages a white war upon men, and where even children are spared most of the diseases dealt out by the cold of the northern regions. Then she moved to Columbia University, where she completed her advanced university studies; at International House she was able to meet students representing most of the countries of the world, particularly the Arab lands; she also used to attend the meetings of the members of the United Nations organization around their green table, in the company of some colleagues from International House, most of whom served as advisers to their countries' delegates.

For seven years before the Second World War she worked in New York at the Near East office, writing on the region and analyzing its problems in speeches, lectures, and articles.

Nor did Mrs. MacCallum forget to tell me of her country and its people, who trace their origins to all manner of lands. Canadian culture bears a European and an American cast, and it is worth mentioning that forty percent of the country's inhabitants speak French, which is taught in most schools there as a second language.

Mrs. MacCallum has loved every task she has been charged to perform, for through it she came to know many personalities — among them, for instance, the women representatives of India at the United Nations and at the many Geneva conferences. She is a great admirer of Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, who presided over one of the sessions of the United Nations and proved the best of presidents, of orators, and of representatives!

During her residence in New York she also came to know Ameen Rihani; a single aim and a common labor brought them together many a time, for Rihani was there the advocate of his country, speaking, pleading, and writing. Our lady described him as a graceful talker and a writer whose writings never knew a dull market or the turning away of readers.

She admired his ardor and enthusiasm in his hard work, which monopolized his time, his activity, and his thought; and it was she who wrote a long article on him in the magazine “Social Work,” which was translated into Arabic.

The years went by... and our lady's desire grew to serve her country and ours together, until Canada gathered her into its political family and sent her to us as representative, emissary, and friend... and Chargée d'Affaires!

Our lady wondered at first that she found no woman colleague in the diplomatic corps here! But in the diplomats' wives she found colleagues — and what excellent colleagues! She confessed to me that her mission is no less important than the mission of the mother... of every mother in this life. Legations have a chargé — or a chargée — d'affaires; but the mother's work none but the mother alone can do!

The diplomats were at a loss, at first, how to address Mrs. MacCallum and how to make the title of her post feminine... At length agreement prevailed among them — they who agree even in their disagreements... She is, as they call her, “the Lady Chargé d'Affaires.”

Lebanon is a spacious house for us and for those who love us, and Mrs. MacCallum is one of those... Her house is the whole of Lebanon, with its mountains and its paths, its shores and its valleys. Welcome, then, to her and her like.