890E.1281/10
The Ambassador in France (Straus) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 15.]
Sir: With reference to the Department’s Instruction of February 11, 1936 (File No. 890E.1281/7),39 regarding the practice of medicine [Page 493] and pharmacy in the Lebanese Republic, I have the honor to report that the French High Commissioner to Syria, who is at present on leave of absence in France, received Mr. Marriner, Counselor of Embassy, on Saturday, March 28, by appointment, and among other subjects touched briefly on the situation concerning the legislation in Lebanon regarding the practice of medicine and pharmacy in that republic.
M. de Martel said that the difficulties were engendered by the very great number of Syrian graduates of the universities of the region, including the American Presbyterian College at Beirut, who had taken degrees in medicine and pharmacy and were naturally opposed to foreign competition. He said that the tendency of the Syrian peoples to go in for the liberal professions had caused the gravest amount of overcrowding of all of them in the French mandate, with consequent jealousy of either doctors or lawyers coming from the outside. He said, however, that the Government of the Lebanon was studying the question and indicated that in any legislation it was certain that France would receive no other or more favorable treatment than any other nation.
To-day, I received a note, signed on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs by M. Bargeton, Director of Political and Commercial Affairs, stating that, according to information furnished by the French High Commissioner to Syria, since the reestablishment of the constitutional regime in the Lebanese Republic, Legislative Decrees Nos. 65 and 66 of January 5, 1933, relative to the conditions required of persons desiring to practice medicine or pharmacy in Lebanon, cannot be modified except by a law voted by the Lebanese Parliament. It is likewise stated in this note that the Government of the Lebanon proposes to present to the Chamber there at its next session a draft of a law modifying the texts of 1933.
A copy and translation of this note, dated March 31, 1936, are transmitted herewith.40
Respectfully yours,