The well-known American journalist Dorothy Thompson is now making, with her husband, a tour of the countries of the East. During her stay in Dhahran last month, our friend Mrs. Intisar Tabash Abu Khadra was able to meet her and to record some of what she said to her, especially for "The Woman's Voice."

Dorothy Thompson is now on her way to Lebanon, after visiting Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.

We thank Intisar for this delightful interview... and bid our gracious guest, in advance, a hearty welcome...

She is a bundle of activity and vitality. I had heard of her before ever I saw her or met her. I knew her through her writings and her pictures in the Arab and Western newspapers and maga-zines. She is an intimate friend of the Arabs, carrying the banner of the defense of their rights in the newspapers and gatherings of America, and for this she heads the American society of the Friends of the Middle East. For four months she has been touring the world, having set before her eyes a visit to the whole of the East and a study of its problems at close range. She reached Egypt, then the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where she spent several days in Jidda as the guest of the Saudi gov-ernment, and several receptions were held in her honor. After Jidda she went to Dhahran, the oil region and headquarters of the Arabian American Oil Company, where she stayed about ten days, during which she delivered three lectures and was honored at several receptions, among them one given by the Arab employees of the company.

In reply to a word of welcome delivered by a representative of the Arab employees, Mrs. Thompson gave a speech in which she thanked those who had arranged the reception, and praised the Arab hospitality she had met with during her travels. She said she was taking this opportunity to affirm her support

of the Arab cause, in whose justice she believes. And she promised to explain this cause in the greatest possible number of American gatherings and newspapers, and elsewhere.

In her principal lecture Miss Thompson spoke of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

• I liked President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who has restored the glory of the Arabs.

• Woman can surpass man in journalism, if she is given the same conditions as he.

• Journalism under a "censor" has no value whatever!

Dorothy Thompson declares:

She said she had met him at a place outside Cairo where he was spending a period of rest. She had been told before the interview that the President was resting from continuous work, but when she looked at his face it became clear to her that no signs of fatigue whatever appeared on it. She added: I can say that he had no need at all to go to Jamaica!! — and the audience interrupted her with cheers and laughter. She spoke of what she had heard about the dictatorship of the Egyptian President, and said she had not found him so; in her journalistic life she had met many dictators, such as Hitler and Mussolini, but this man is not of that stamp. She admired his simplicity, his frankness, and his calm in speech and movement; he differs, too, from other dictators in that he does not dodge questions and does not avoid looking into the speaker's eyes — on the contrary, his eyes are always trying to draw the eyes of the person sitting with him.

Miss Thompson spoke for an hour and a half, summing up all that had passed in her meeting with Abdel Nasser, which lasted three hours; the core of the talk, naturally, was the political events through which Egypt has passed, and the deeds of Abdel Nasser, which have restored to the Arabs their pride and their glory. When she finished she said: Abdel Nasser attracted me by his dignity and the perfection of his presence — but do not think I praise him because I have fallen in love with him. No! Abdel Nasser is the age of my son!!