Mr. Muhammad Sarra, Minister of Information and Public Works, shakes hands with Mr. Rushdi al-Ma'alouf. On his right is Mr. Bechara al-Gharb, representative of the World Organization for the Freedom of Culture
On the evening of the ninth of July last, the regional center of the World Organization for the Freedom of Culture gave a sumptuous cocktail party in honor of Mr. Rushdi Ma'alouf, editor-in-chief of "al-Jarida" and author of the book "Mukhtasar Mufid," which appeared recently and made the most agreeable impression in press and political circles.
The cocktail party was attended by a number of prominent political personalities and by the elect of the men of thought and letters in Lebanon; and the organization's representative in the Middle East, Mr. Bechara Gharib, moved about among the guests, welcoming them and spreading among them an air of good cheer and gaiety.
Mrs. Najla Aqrawi left Beirut by plane on July 27 last with her two children, Sabah and Amin, to visit her husband, Dr. Matta Aqrawi, who lives in Paris as an official at UNESCO...
It is hoped that the stay in
Paris will not last more than two months, and that they will return to Beirut with the opening of the schools... No doubt the readers of "The Woman's Voice" follow with interest and admiration the valuable articles that Mrs. Aqrawi writes regularly for the magazine on the modern French theater and other subjects...
She has promised to send readers from France an article or more on "Arab Students in Paris," and there is much that is delightful in what she will have to say on this score.
So we wish our friend Najla, with her husband and her two children, a happy "reunion" in the enchanting climes of France. Until we meet her again in the coming issue...
The National College in Choueifat has been accustomed, at the close of every year, to hold its annual certificate-distribution ceremony on the shoulder of the ever-green hill... and from there it sends forth a flock of vigorous youth furnished with abundant learning and knowledge.
Despite the failing health of its president, Mr. Charles Saad, it held the annual ceremony this year; its orator was the poet Said Akl, and the president too took the platform and delivered a word of counsel to the graduates. At the close of the ceremony, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Adel Osseiran, announced that His Excellency the President of the Republic had charged him with conferring upon Emira Asma Abillama, directress of the institute, the Lebanese Order of Merit, officer grade, in appreciation of her fifty years of service in the field of education.
We congratulate Emira Asma on the medal, which well befits the breasts of such strivers for the good and the public interest as
she — and may God prolong her life, that we may witness her investiture with the highest medal of all!
The South is one of the regions unknown to the inhabitants of Lebanon... They may know the names of the cities of the West, or the wilds of Africa; but if you mention to them the name of a town in that quarter, they ask you in astonishment: and where might that be?... The inhabitants of those villages have begun to shake from