by confiscating the loudspeakers, cutting off the electric current from the pleasure haunts that persist in disturbing people, and confiscating the radio sets from houses that play them at high volume... We have begun this policy in Bhamdoun and we shall extend it in turn to all the villages... What do you ladies think of this idea?"

"It is a splendid idea," answered Linda Majdalani, "but what might you do about the drivers and their horns? Will you impound their cars!"

"It is a good idea, if we could apply it. But up to now the responsible officials have not agreed on any particular effective way of punishing the drivers, especially since among them there are decent fellows and criminals alike."

"Then how do they come to hold driving licenses?" Anna inter-rupted him. "This is a problem that must be solved quickly... They must be made to pay very heavy fines, so that they keep to the straight path..."

"This method is followed in Ireland, and it is very success-ful," Charlotte Osseily remarked. "Why do we not follow it here in Lebanon? What is the worth of the five liras with which a driver is penalized — and which he may never even pay!... He must pay dearly, and at once..."

"There are many methods," Michel Toma added, "but the important thing is that opinion should settle on one of them and that it be applied!..."

"Why does opinion not settle?" Anna asked him. "Is the govern-ment afraid of the drivers?"

"... Perhaps," answered Michel Toma with a broad laugh, "and I am glad that ladies like your-

Nadia Sabra will take the "mazout" question up with her husband, the Minister of Works, to get it solved

selves take an interest in these questions. This interest ought to be broader and stronger still, for the government heeds the voice of the people and listens to it. If you want reform, you have only to demand it and raise your voices high!"

"We are greatly interested," answered Samia Abu al-Jabin, "and I should now like to call your attention to Beirut International Airport. The way the drivers there treat tourists and foreigners gives no good impression of the people of this country..."

"The only solution to this problem," Toma answered, "is the founding of a company of metered cars, to which the driver would be bound, and..."

"Compared with the plages of Europe, our plages are a farce," says Charlotte Osseily