Ahliah Girls' College celebrated the distribution of certificates to its graduates on the afternoon of Friday, June 14 last. That ceremony was the forty-first in the history of the Ahliah, which at the close of every school year sends forth a new class of cultivated, conscious young women — to safeguard this homeland, and to work for its uplift and its reform.

The ceremony was under the patronage of the Minister of Education, Dr. Charles Malik. But he excused himself from attending and from speaking on account of an indisposition, and Mr. Fouad Sawaya, the director of education, stood in for him.

The address with which the president of the institute, the great educator Mrs. Widad Cortas, bade the graduates farewell made a fine impression upon the graduates and the audience; it was as though she meant by it to press out the light she had kindled for the students throughout their years of study, and to place it in their hands, that with it they might face life and its hardships..

By the time this issue reaches readers' hands, baby "Leen" will have reached two months of age — for her birth, at the hospital of Dr. Raymond Sarhal, took place on May 10 last, and mother and child moved, in the best of health, to Beiteddine.

"Leen" is the firstborn of Mrs. Widad and Mr. Subhi Abu Shaqra, director of the museum at the Beiteddine palace, whom listeners to Radio Lebanon know from his active part in the "Lebanese Soldier's Broadcast."

... And the father's face lights up when he speaks of the "first smile" that parted "Leen's" lips — especially since she resembles him more than she resembles her mother!.. And he is already counting off the minutes for her to grow up, so he can play with her and take her along on outings...

Our congratulations to the par-ents, happy in sweet, dark-com-plexioned Leen!.

Word reached us, as the mag-azine was going to press, that the Baalbek Festivals Committee has this year taken the advice of the many who urged upon it the strengthening of the local color in these international spectacles of high standard.

And we are pleased to announce here that the First Lady of Lebanon, Mrs. Chamoun, has adopted this project in a practical and effective manner, and that artistic specialists are supervis-ing the production of sketches and programs in which the splendor of Lebanese folklore — dance, song, and costume — will all be displayed...

As for the dates of these per-formances, they are the coming August 31 and the first of September — so, until we meet again with full details in the next issue...