HELOU, CHARLES (ALEXANDRE)

born Dec. 25, 1912, Beirut president of Lebanon, 1964-70. Hlou was educated at St. Joseph's University (1919-29) and received a law degree from the French faculty of law in Beirut. He founded two French-language newspapers, L'Eclair du Nord (Aleppo, 1932) and Le Jour (Beirut, 1935-46). He served as ambassador to the Vatican in 1947 and later held several Cabinet posts, including minister of justice and health (1954-55) and education (1964). Not long after his inauguration as president in 1964, Hlou agreed at an Arab summit meeting to Arab sponsorship of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but he refused to allow the stationing of PLO bases in Lebanon, an issue that grew increasingly explosive in the course of his term. In 1968-69 a pattern emerged in which the Christian president and the army command opposed the stationing of Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon, while the Muslim prime minister, Rashid Karami, favoured it. Under great pressure from Arab nations and from Lebanese Muslims, Hlou in 1969 moved to avert a crisis by accepting Karami's proposed policy of coordination between the PLO and the Lebanese Army, whereby the PLO secured the right to establish armed units in Lebanese refugee camps.