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Faced with such deep factional mistrust, not to mention the immense common problem of recovery, President Elias Sarkis, 53, is moving with all deliberate caution. A former central banker who is conservative by nature, Sarkis tears that any wrong decision might force the country into an irreparable partition. He thus issues few directives, a policy that prompted one Christian leader to complain. "We thought that Sarkis would be a chief of state. He's turned out to be a referee." Still, a skillful referee may be just what Lebanon needs, at least until its fragile truce can be supplanted by a federated state or some other more permanent arrangement. Until then, as St. Georges swimming club Owner Nader optimistically insists: "Every day without war is a form of reconcilliation."