The First Lady of Lebanon, Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun, Speaks of Her Visit to Italy and Turkey

If, dear reader, you are among those who do not believe in the warmth of blue eyes, a day must come when you change your mind. I came to believe in it — magnetism and warmth — after sitting yesterday with Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun. And there passed through my mind the blessing of perfect elegance of appearance in the persons of His Excellency our President and his lady wife at one and the same time!

She received me in her salon, with the utmost simplicity and taste, and went on talking with me for an hour and a quarter while bent over unstitching a black dress of hers. She loves it, she said, and whenever she loves a dress she works it over, however old it may be, to bring it back fit to wear... One of the witty persons present teased her with a light wink: "Have you ever heard of a President of the Republic who darns his socks and towels?" — and broad smiles spread over the faces. The First Lady of Lebanon answered him with a proud toss of her beautiful blond head: "These are the State's towels; we received them by count, and by count we shall hand them back, and there is no shutting one's eyes to mending them when the need arises... And besides, how am I to fill my spare time when I am at home?"

There was in the ring of her voice an abundance of femininity and warmth of feeling! "She is a lady..." I whispered within myself — and we passed at once to the subject of the visit.

— The Woman's Voice desires, Your Ladyship, a talk about your personal impressions of your double official visit to Italy and Turkey.

— I fear my personal impressions are very few; our journey was nothing but a chain of ceremonies and noisy official receptions. Wherever we alighted, whether in Italy or in Turkey, we met the warmest of welcomes. But official persons such as ourselves are seldom given the chance to enjoy such journeys as they please. They are always in the thick of a strict protocol. If it occurred to me, for instance, to slip down to the market on the sly to buy something, I could not be safe from the detective on my heels... to say nothing of the photographers and the newspaper editors! Then there is the official program crammed with surprises, from the marvels of the archaeological and art museums, to the towering opera houses, to the cultural and professional institutions — only to return in the evening to a dinner party of exchanged compliments, or a reception spent on our feet, shaking hands, however great our exhaustion! And with all this we were in continual movement, hardly setting down our baggage before starting to pack and strap our suitcases anew!

This grueling routine spoiled my chance of enjoying things at leisure, as I would have wished; apart from that, the utmost efforts were exerted to honor us and to strengthen the ties of friendship and affection.

— And what impression did the visit to the Vatican leave upon you?

— Our visit to the Vatican left the deepest impression on my soul. Our reception was described as one of the grandest that State has known since the Second World War. And how marvelous is the order made manifest in all that pomp and glory! And the person of His Holiness the Pope — how it breathes spirituality and deep reverence, so that whoever stands before him sinks to his knees in prostration, needing no promptings of protocol.

— And what kind of decoration did he bestow upon you?

— The Order of Merit. As for its moral worth, that comes of its being conferred by His Holiness the Pope himself!

— So much for Italy. And now, was there in your visit to Turkey any aspect that caught your attention in particular?

— In Turkey I felt the warmth of the people's feeling and their surpassing delight in us, until it almost seemed to me that all Turkey was streaming out to meet us. My heart was filled with joy by the sight of the workers and villagers in the outlying districts, gathered at a railway station or a crossroads to present us with bouquets of flowers and gifts made with their own hands in our name — carpets and cloths... And there were paper mills and printing houses that presented every member of the delegation with paper printed with his name. It is the kindest and noblest of feelings that awoke in the breasts of our Turkish brothers to affirm their love...

— And what are your impressions of the modern renaissance in Turkey, of which we hear so much?

— The signs of that mighty renaissance confront the visitor wherever he turns: cultural, industrial, scientific, and social. I ascribe it, I believe, to that positive, constructive solidarity between the people and the government: hardly does any constructive project begin before all efforts join together to carry it out in the best manner. Here lies the secret of their success in the last quarter century... And this is exactly what we lack in Lebanon. With us the people look on the government as an opposing team, and delight, as far as they can, in spending their energy on baiting and criticizing it, without cooperating with it or praising it for any gesture it has made for the common good.

— And what did you admire most in the Turks as a people?

— What stirred my admiration most in the Turks is their obedience to order and their submission to the law out of conviction of its justice, and that in its application lie their welfare and their good, as they were taught by the builder of their glory, the late Kemal Atatürk. They are seeds all of goodness and blessing, those that have sprouted in the sister neighbor and begun to yield the finest of fruit.

— Can you, finally, Madam, name the most delightful moment you spent in the whole of this journey?

— The most delightful moment, beyond doubt — after the splendid celebrations — was the two days of rest and freedom aboard the Turkish ship that brought us back to Lebanon. Nature, in her bright spring dress, was serene and bewitching in a beauty I cannot do justice to in description. It was sweet to me to meditate in silence and revive memories... and to know that early the next morning I should not be busied with strapping the suitcases...

And any one of us, believe me, after so crowded a journey, finds his heart clamoring with longing for his home and his homeland...