Your Assembly must decide, as the Guardian already told dear Mr.
Schopflocher(23) when he was here, upon the advisability of maintaining
the Laurentian School(24), in an objective spirit. The Guardian can only
outline to you the principle, which is that Baha'i funds should not be
invested in building up a place that has dear associations for a number of
the friends, but is not going to really serve a large group of the
believers.
The Guardian's point is that National Bodies when creating national
institutions, should use sound judgment, because of the financial
investment involved. This is only reasonable.
Your Assembly must therefore decide what to do about the Laurentian
School, and you are free to make your own decisions.
He would be very happy to have the National Assembly maintain the grave of
dear Sutherland Maxwell(25). His association, not only with Canada and the
inception of the Faith there, but with the World Centre and the Shrine of
the Bab, naturally endears him to all the friends, and his grave should be
a national memorial. When the time comes to erect the tombstone, the
question of receiving contributions from your Body can be considered.
He feels that the Canadian Community, old in the Northern Hemisphere, but
young in its independence, is showing great promise, and he is proud of it
and of the spirit that animates both its National Assembly and its
members. He also feels confident it will distinguish itself, not only
during the coming year, but during the next 10 years before our Most Great
Jubilee falls due in 1963.
With warm Baha'i love,
R. RABBANI.
P.S.--Regarding your question concerning St. John's, Newfoundland, and the
believers living outside the town limits: no exception to the general rule
can be made in this case.
Dear and Valued Co-Workers:
The Plan, with which the immediate destinies of the valiant, newly emerged
independent, highly promising Canadian Baha'i Community are linked is, as
it approaches its closing stage, passing through a very critical period in
its unfoldment. Proclaiming as it does the formal association of the
second Baha'i community to attain an independent status in the Western
Hemisphere with its sister communities who, in various parts of the Baha'i
World, are prosecuting specific Plans designed to foster their organic
development, signalizing the alignment of this community as the sole ally
of the chief Executors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Master Plan, this collective
fate-laden enterprise upon which this youthful and virile member of the
World Baha'i Family has so whole-heartedly and enthusiastically
launched--an enterprise on the successful consummation of which the
effective initiation of its glorious mission, far beyond the borders of
the Dominion of Canada, must ultimately depend--such an enterprise, however
vast the field in which it operates, and no matter how circumscribed the
resources of the small band of stalwart pioneers engaged in its
prosecution--must, under no circumstances be allowed to register a failure.
In Newfoundland, in Greenland, among the Eskimos and Indians, through the
incorporation of its National Assembly, the immediate objectives have been
practically attained. The attention of the entire community must, in the
remaining months ahead, be focused on the dire necessity of multiplying,
at whatever cost, the number of pioneers, the rapid formation of groups,
and the conversion of groups into Assemblies, so that the complete and
total success of the Plan may be assured, and a triumphant community may
step forward, confident and unencumbered by any liabilities, into a vast
arena of service, prosecute a still more glorious mission, and win still
mightier victories.