His Excellency President Chamoun decorates Mrs. Fayza al-Solh with the Order of Merit

• In a great ceremony whose numbers passed one thousand five hundred, on Saturday, October 22, the women's organization took over the Islamic Makassed Hospital from Dr. Muhammad Khalid, as it is later to be handed on to a board of trustees who will carry its heavy burdens...

The ceremony was attended by His Excellency the President of the Republic, His Excellency the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, and a great host of official and civic personalities; the proceedings of the ceremony were carried by Radio Lebanon.

Dr. Muhammad Khalid spoke, reading a list of the donors' names and thanking them, then set forth what he had endured in bringing the project to completion.... Then Mrs. Habiba Shaaban Yakan rose and delivered an address on behalf of the president of the women's committee, Mrs. Fayza al-Solh, in which she summed up the manner in which the hospital came into being.

At the close of the ceremony His Excellency the President decorated both Mrs. al-Solh and Dr. Muhammad Khalid with the Order of the Cedar in the rank of Commander, in appreciation of their services, and announced a government appropriation of fifty thousand lira, which made the happiest of impressions...

We content ourselves for now with this hurried word, space being short, meaning to bring our readers back to the Makassed charitable hospital on another occasion.

Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun and Mr. González Robles before some of the canvases.

In art there is perpetual renewal; and talk of art is ever welcome; we observe interest in it growing in our country day by day, and this is a happy sign — if it points to anything, it points to appreciation and to elevation of taste!

Autumn's share of art was an exhibition of Spanish sculpture and painting, mounted by González Robles, director of the exhibitions branch of the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts in Spain; it was opened by Mrs. Zalfa Chamoun in the halls of UNESCO.

The exhibition gathered the works of thirty-nine of Spain's famous contemporary artists; it is worth mentioning that some of these canvases were shown in Alexandria, and will be shown in Damascus and Amman after Beirut.

One who looks at the canvases cannot fail to notice the bright colors and the merry touch wherever the artist's climate draws near the Mediterranean shore, while the colors grow paler as the artistic climate moves deep into the inland country; and for all the Spanish artist's keeping of the classical stamp, the modern school is a strong presence — and close to the manner of Picasso!...

• On the occasion of United Nations Day, the Young Women's Christian Association invited guests, on the afternoon of October 24 last, to a grand tea party at the Ain el-Mreisseh club, at which Dr. Salwa Nassar spoke on the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. Readers will recall that Dr. Nassar, head of the physics department at the American University of Beirut, represented her country at the United Nations conference held recently in Switzerland for this purpose — and in the coming issue we shall print a summary of the talk, so that its benefit may be shared by all.