The big celebration of March 1 to which government representatives, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and other important people were invited and that was supposed to take place at Normandy Hotel was transferred to the house of comrades Iskandar and Fu'ad Shawi in al Ashrafiyye district of Beirut. It was decided that I introduce Saadeh and one of his first aids, Dr. Hisham Sharabi give the welcoming remarks.
We left some comrades at the Normandy Hotel so that they can transfer those who didn't know of the transfer to al Ashrafiyye. I remember that Prime Minister Sami al Sulh arrived at the hotel and some comrades brought him to al Ashrafiyye. I also remember that Jean Tayyan, the leader of the lawyers' syndicate, was amongst those present.
My speech was very poetic. I started it by how I perceived the victory of the awakening, which was being celebrated in the presence of a big crowd, while Saadeh was mounting a horse and was accompanied by horse riding army knights while entering the celebration square.
The speech he gave that night was his farewell speech. It was the speech of March 1, 1949, after which we don't remember Saadeh delivering another speech. I want to reproduce this speech in its entirety, because what he said in it was a revolution in itself:
“The pot of awakening is boiling,” said Saadeh at comrade Baltaji's home. That pot was boiling indeed, because the waiting in Saadeh's and his SSNP members' chests had reache3d its peak… It had peaked as it had before during the reign of President Bishara al Khuri's and Riyad al Sulh's times. It was peaked because of accumulated layers of corruption and persecution against the party and the whole Lebanese people (the best example in demonstrating the situation would be the may 25, 1947 elections).
This all proved without any doubt that there was the sincere urgency of a revolution against the rulers who persecuted the party and the people.
The question that asserts itself is why all this talk about the revolution that was in the process of happening. Wasn't the party itself a statement of refusal to the status-quo in Lebanon, the Fertile Crescent, and the Arab world at the time? Wasn't the party's ideology and rules evidence enough that the reason for the revolution was to change the existing ruling elites and their educational, economical, and social, military, police, and secret infrastructures and to bring forth a new structure to replace what already was decaying with its sectarian, feudal, chaotic, tribal ailments that were degrading for the people and society at the same time?
Could bringing forth such new government structures happen by mere speeches, political agitation and hurrahs? Or it could only be achieved with iron and fire when the hour of reality bangs. Wouldn't this happen when the party was at the zenith of its power with its cadre and popularity strong?
Then of course, isn't there in Saadeh's speech at Bshamun, from the balcony of comrade Adil Mas'ud in 1948, indications that the man had become a living martyr when he shouted: “Life is but only a proud stance. My life is worth only that to me.”
Also, what were the indications in our Arab world, or the whole world for that mater, that informed us that the destiny of our land and people with the Sykes-Picot Agreement of World War I had stopped with the French army leaving our country?
Wasn't the calamity of Hagana's and Aragon's bands' stealing the big part of Palestine enough to shake our people in the whole Arab world, which was boiling with the demand of ridding itself from the leaders who caused that calamity to happen?
Saadeh was cautioning even before his party was formed, about the loss of Palestine.
The declaration of the formation of Israel on May 15, 1948 was enough to move all revolutionary forces to fight against the complacent existing regimes and to replace them with progressive regimes that know their responsibilities and how to react to devious programs of partitioning the Arab people and immerse it in new catastrophes.
And more importantly, wasn't Husni al Za'im's successful coup d'etat and his program of separation of religion and state and his call to the youth to take responsibility, a strong indication for Saadeh to make his revolution happen in Lebanon, which would-in the case it succeeded-make it a beacon to its surrounding environment…
JUNE 9, 1949 AND ITS AFTERMATH
Saadeh asked me to visit my friend, former judge Nazim Raad, who had been appointed as head of the Lebanese police force. This meeting was to take place on June 9, 1949. My task was to inform Raad to the party meeting that the Kata'ib party had announced for that day at a café near their headquarters in Jimmayzeh. I went to see Raad a day earlier. He met me and I told him about the danger of a clash between SSNP and Kata'ib members because of the big crowd that would gather at the café.
