In spite it all: Student activism continues! Secretly

Juḥā, Shafīq. (2004) al-Ḥarakah al-ʻArabīyah al-Sirrīyah : Jamāʻat al-Kitāb al-Aḥmar, 1935-1945, Bayrūt : al-Furāt

In spite of the emergency measures, and of dissolvent many student societies, students continued to engage in political debates and activities, exchanging views, debating ideas of Arab and/or regional or local unity, and even participating in secret societies and activities.  With the outbreak of the World War II in 1939, the "Red Book Group", [advocating Arab nationalism and unity] like other political organizations of its kind, fell under close watch by the mandatory authorities and so became virtually inoperative.

List of Urwá al-wuthqá members of 1938-1939 AA:4.3.4 Students 1920s, Box 2, file 1, Archives and Special Collections, Jafet Library, AUB

Meanwhile, due to the war circumstances, Urwá al-wuthqá was closed down, although its journal continued to be issued under the supervision of Zurayk, merely as an AUB student publication. It was only in the Fall of 1945 following the end of the Mandate, that al-‘Urwa was allowed by the Lebanese authorities to resume its activities and become, once again, the leading student society on campus.