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SEPTEMBER 1955           9

[[image - black and white photograph of Habib ben Ali Bourguiba]]
[[caption under image:]] French Embassy Press & Inf. Div. HABIB BEN ALI BOURGUIBA

and "keep in contact with the boys" (National Council Outlook, Februrary 1955). 

The clergyman is the author of several articles in theological magazines and is represented in the collection of Best Sermons for 1944, 1946 and 1951-1952 (G. P. Butler, editor). Concerning an increase of religious interest in the United States, Dr. Blake warned against the danger of pushing a superficial interpretation of the will of God in social and political affairs into fanaticism and against those who turn religion into "magic - that is, to try to use God for their own purposes rather than to serve God and find His purposes" (Christian Century, December 29, 1954). 

Dr. Blake holds a number of honorary degrees from American colleges as well as from Princeton University (1952). He is a trustee of the San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, Callifornia, Princeton Theological Seminary, Occidental College, Lawrenceville School, and Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia. 

He married Valina Gillespie on September 12, 1929. Newsweek (March 28, 1955) describes Dr. Blake as "an affable, broad-shouldered six-footer." He has dark eyes and graying hair. His recreations are swimming, golf, and playing with his Boston terrier; he enjoys watching baseball and football. "If a man wants a faith sufficient to live by," he said, "it must be a faith which ha can die by, too" (New York Herald Tribune, April 7, 1955). 

References
Christian Sci Mon p6 D 3'54
Newsweek 45:55+ Mr 28 '55 pors
Time 62:33 D 28 '53; 64:69 D 13 '54 
Who's who in America, 1954-55

BOURGUIBA, HABIB BEN ALI (b[[symbol - 'oo' with curved line over the top]]r' g[[symbol - 'i' with a horizontal bar above]]-bä" hà'b[[symbol - 'e' with horizontal bar above]]b b[[symbol - 'e' with down pointing arrow above]]n [[symbol - 'a' with down pointing arrow above]]-l[[symbol - 'i' with down pointing arrow above]]') 1904- Tunisian political leader
Address: Place aux Moutons, Tunis, Tunisia

Over 300,000 cheering Tunisians, representing every segment of the country's 3,500,000 people gathered in TUnis on June 1, 1955 to welcome home Habib Bourguiba, leader of the nationalist Neo-Destour (New Constitution) party, after more than three years in exile. His return had the blessings of his former French jailers, and Bourguiba is expected to stay and help to guide the new program of gradual home rule for Tunisia. 

His release symbolized the internal autonomy granted by the agreement which Tunisia reached with France on April 22, 1955 and which was approved by the French National Assembly on July 9 by a vote of 540 to 43. 

Time (May 2, 1955) called Bourguiba "the real Tunisian string-puller behind the scenes … an authentic political genius." His moderate counsels have helped to unify Tunisian nationalists so that the Communists have been unable to seriously infiltrate them. "We must know how to use this sovereignty in a dignified manner," he told his people at his home-coming celebration. "We must respect everyone who lives on this earth, be he French or foreigner. We must treat him as a brother as long as he respects our freedom, our personality, and our dignity."

Tunisia, a country the size of Louisiana, became a French protectorate in 1881. Full control was gradually assumed by France as French and other European settlers became the chief agriculturalists and industrialists, invested millions and paid 50 per cent of the taxes. The French colonials - 15,000 in number - were the major source of conflict in the self-government drive begun in 1933 by Habib Bourguiba and the powerful Neo-Destour party, which he founded in that year.

Habib ben Ali Bourguiba, son of Ali Bourguiba, an officer in the Army of the Bey of Tunis, was born in the small fishing village of Monastir, Tunisia in 1904. His early years were spent in Tunis, where he received elementary education at a French-Moslem school and later attended a French high school. He went to Paris in 1922 and studied law and political science at the University of Paris. Upon his return to Tunisia in 1928, he was admitted to the bar. 

A keen interest in politics led him to join the Destour (Constitution) party that had been organized in 1920 and had gained a species of political concessions from the French in its first years. In 1933 a group of French-educated intellectuals headed by Bourguiba, bolted the party and founded Neo-Destour, on Western-style nationalism rather than Islamic traditionalism (Reporter, July 7, 1953). 

Described by Curt L. Heymann (Los Angeles Times, February 17, 1952) as a "forceful speaker whose expressions and mannerisms fascinate the masses," Bourguiba was said to have stirred the nationalism of his countrymen who joined Neo-Destour by the thousands, and gained the moral support of Tunisia's entire Moslem population. The party was outlawed