President Bechara Al Khouri

PLace and Date of Birth: Born in Aley, Lebanon, on August 10, 1890. Died  on January 11, 1964. Son of Khalil Al Khouri, a prominent civil official.
Sect: Maronite
Status: Lebanese statesman, president of Lebanon from 1943 to 1952.
Education: Studied law in Paris where he graduated from the University of Paris in 1912. There he learned to speak French fluently. In his earlier years, Khouri attended the Jusuit school in Beirut where he studied French, along with Latin and Greek. He also learned to speak Arabic from his father who worked as head of the Mutasarrifiah Arab Bureau during the Ottoman rule.

Career: In 1920 Khouri became secretary-general to the government of Mount Lebanon (the predecessor state of modern-day Lebanon), and he was soon appointed to the newly formed administrative council. He held this position until 1922, when he returned to a private law practice.

Under Prime Minister Adib he returned to politics in 1926 as minister of the interior. During the next three years, Khouri himself was prime minister of Lebanon on three occasions, holding that office for a total of almost two years. Between 1926 and 1932 the personal rivalry between Khouri and Emile Eddé, another Christian, dominated the internal politics of Lebanon.

During World War II, Khouri cultivated close contacts with the British. In 1943 the French held general elections to implement their earlier grant of Lebanese independence, and Khouri was elected president, although he was temporarily arrested by the French in November 1943 after his government had introduced changes in Lebanon's constitution that eliminated all vestiges of French political influence in the country.

In 1948 Khouri had the national legislature amend the constitution to allow him a second term in office. He won the subsequent election, but widespread opposition to the dubious means by which he had obtained the legislature's approval of the amendment, as well as to the corruption and favouritism displayed by him, forced him into retirement in September 1952.