UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1951-11-16_Page-049

ëA I L 20 The American University at Cairo LAND TITLE BUILDING PHILADELPHIA 10, PA. Cairo, Egypt Office of the President November 3, 1951 To the Board of Trustees Dear Friends: When I wrote to Dr- Horton the other day, it seemed likely that a memorandum would be forthcoming f: rm Council ac the result of important questions then being raised by the Building Comiuft;,ee . The upshot of our disoussions, how-ever. has been a report on the new bui'.ding plans that Mr. Vandersall, chairman of the Building Committee, has sent to Mr, Garrett and Dr. Badeau. We all hope this will be helpful in your considerations, also that you will send one or more of your members to study the problem at first hand. I write now to give you an informal summary of the local situation. Tomorrow, my wife and I will have been here just seven weeks. That is too brief a time for firm conclusions, but we do have certain impressions. The first of these I wrote you individually. Since then, the tumult and the shouting have died, the captains and the kings have not arrived, and contrite hearts are still humbly sacrificing in His cause. That this Cause is on-going right here at A.U.C., I have no doubt. Little things as well as large furnish ample evidence. A Muslim teacher oalls up-on his Christian colleague to lead devotions in assembly, while their associate, a Jew, shoulders more than his share of the load in the laboratory. A hush falls over the undergraduates in Convocation as portions of the Koran and the Bible are read, respectively, in Arabic and English. Americans, and a few eastern brothers and sisters, are stirred to the depths by simple words spoken in a Wednesday afternoon prayer meeting. And a younger student comes to his short-term instruc-tor for help in a difficult family problem of cleavage between parents, one Muslim, one Christian. Outside our gates, the life of this great metropolis flows by, some-times with unperturbed pace but more and more with motorized haste and noise. We feel very much more a part of the whole, thanks largely to the president's car left for our use. And we have had the pleasure of welcoming over fifty visitors during our short stay. A few of them have found Cairo a dirty and repulsive place; others have been entranced with its variety; each has had a glimpse of A.U.C. and some have caught the vision. The disturbances of last month inter-rupted the flow of visitors, caused the closing of classes on the 9th and 23rd, and gave rise to no end of rumors and talk of incidents, demonstrations, mobs, insults and childishness; but our people name and went as usual, nothing entered or damaged our property, and th3 academic process churned on. Informed opinion, as far as we have had opportunity to tap it, ranges from severe criticism of things and people non-Egyptian to an attitude suggesting a persecution complex. Eng^. ish translations of the Arabic press reveal not only a virulent anti-British campaign but, at the same time, fear of reprisals. Some of the closest friends of the University have intimated that there may be attacks on Christian and pro-western minorities. No one, insid