World Events in a Month

This section is edited by Kabir Shuqayr Adam

• Lebanon has suffered its second calamity: after the flooding of the "Abu Ali" river came the painful disaster of the earthquake, on the evening of Friday the sixteenth of March, when people felt three violent shocks that terrified them and made them flee their houses all night long. Many villages and houses were demolished, hundreds were killed and wounded, and thousands were left homeless in those cold mountain regions. Lebanon, government and people, rose to console and help the stricken, and the sister Arab states and the friendly states showed a sympathy and an assistance for which they deserve thanks.

• The dismissal of Lieutenant General Glubb, chief of staff of the Jordanian army, was the most important event of the month. It was carried out by royal order, after the loyal had perceived the desire of the English officers to dominate that young Arab army, which counts in the vanguard of the Arab armies.

By the dismissal of Lieutenant General Glubb, the English have lost the greatest link binding them to the Middle East.

• The three leading men of the Arabs met in Cairo — His Majesty King Saud and the two presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Shukri al-Quwatli — and the outcome of their meeting was the strengthening of Arab security and work to preserve the being of the Arab nation and to defend it against Zionism and foreign domination; they agreed also on plans of defense against any aggression falling upon any Arab state.

• The visit of the young men and women of the Egyptian universities to Lebanon last month had a pleasant echo in Lebanese sporting circles, and in the festivals there shone forth the spirit of brotherhood that binds the two sister countries.

What stirred enthusiasm was the parade of the National Guard of the young women of Egypt, who carried rifles and marched with resolve and firmness to the beat of the military music.

• The government of France signed the memorandum of the independence of Morocco, after a long-lasting struggle in which the Moroccan people gave proof of a comprehensive national consciousness.

Likewise the Franco-Tunisian signing took place concerning the independence of Tunisia, acknowledging its right to create its own army and to oversee its foreign affairs — which proves that independence, like liberty, is taken, not given; Morocco and Tunisia obtained it by their struggle and their blood.

• The new electoral law was issued in Egypt; it gives the right to vote to everyone who has reached the age of eighteen, man or woman.

• The Iraqi Women's Union submitted a petition bearing hundreds of signatures, the women asking to obtain their political rights on a par with their Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian sisters.

• The annual meeting of the General Arab Women's Union convened in Cairo on the twenty-first of last March; this meeting comprises, besides the members of the head bureau in Beirut, the presidents and secretaries of the Arab unions.

• The disturbances in Cyprus are still at their height, despite the arrest and exile of Bishop Makarios, archbishop of Cyprus, and his aides among the clergy, to the "Seychelles" islands in the Indian Ocean.

• President Eisenhower has decided to nominate himself a second time for the presidency of the American Republic, after his physicians assured him of his ability to wage the battle for the presidency.

• It has become settled that Mr. Bulganin, head of the government of the Soviet Union, and Mr. Khrushchev will visit Britain in the middle of next April; the British government is preparing to receive the two great guests, and all precautions have been taken to safeguard their lives for the duration of their stay in Britain.