From Turkey, on whose soil, for well nigh three score years and ten, were
enacted some of the sublimest and most tragic scenes in the annals of the
Cause; Turkey, under whose rule Baha'u'llah twice proclaimed Himself, was
thrice exiled and banished, and finally ascended to the Abha Kingdom, and
where 'Abdu'l-Baha spent more than fifty years of His Life, in
incarceration and suffering; has of late been rudely awakened to a Call
which it has so long obstinately despised and ignored. Following on the
overthrow of that effete theocracy, resting on the twin institutions of
the Caliphate and Sultanate--those two sinister forces that have combined
to inflict the deadliest blows to our beloved Faith in the earliest stages
of its infancy and growth--an uncompromising policy aiming at the
secularization of the State and the disestablishment of Islam was
initiated and carried out with exemplary vigor. Religious institutions and
monastic orders which under the guise of religious propaganda were
converted into hot-beds of political intrigue and sedition were
peremptorily closed, their adherents scattered and banished, their funds
confiscated, their privileges and prerogatives abolished. None, save the
little band of Baha'u'llah's devoted followers, escaped the trenchant ax
of the pitiless reformer; all, without fear or favor, had to submit to his
searching investigations, his dictatorial edicts, his severe and
irrevocable judgment. Lately, however, the Turkish Government, faithful to
its policy of ceaseless vigilance, and fearful of the growing activities
of the Baha'is under its rule, decided to order the Police in the town of
Smyrna to conduct a close investigation into the purpose, the character
and the effects of Baha'i activity in that town. No sooner were the
representative Baha'is in that locality arrested and conducted to the Law
Courts for purposes of investigation, than the President of the Baha'i
Spiritual Assembly of Constantinople who, having read in the morning
papers the report of the Smyrna incident, had resolved unsummoned to offer
the necessary explanations to the authorities concerned, was in his turn
arrested and taken to the Police Headquarters where he soon afterwards was
joined by the other members of the Assembly. The official searching of
their homes, the seizure of whatever Baha'i literature they had in their
possession, their twenty-four hours detention at the Police station, the
searching severity of the cross-examination to which they were
subjected--all proved powerless to alarm and shake the faith of those
intrepid champions of the Cause, or to evince anything detrimental to the
best interests of the State. On the contrary, they served to deeply
impress upon the minds and hearts of the officials concerned the
sublimity, the innocence, and the dynamic force of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah. So much so that their books were returned, a genuine desire
to deepen their knowledge of the Cause was expressed by their examiners,
and widespread publicity, as reflected in the articles of about a dozen
leading newspapers of Turkey, was accorded by the Government, proclaiming
the innocence of the Cause and lifting up the ban that now so oppressively
weighs upon religious institutions in Turkey.
From Constantinople in European Turkey to the eastern confines of
Anatolia, on the banks of the river Euphrates, where a small and
flourishing Baha'i Community has been recently established, a wave of
public interest, criticism and inquiry has been sweeping over the surface
of the land, as witnessed by the character and number of the leading
articles, the illustrations and caricatures that have appeared in the most
prominent newspapers of the capital and the provincial towns of Asiatic
Turkey. Not only Turkey, but its neighboring countries of the East and the
West, have lifted up their voice in the vindication of the Baha'i truth.
From information thus far gathered we learn that in Hungary, in 'Iraq,
Egypt and Syria, and as far west as France and England, newspapers have,
of their own accord, with varying degree of accuracy, and in more or less
detail, reported this incident in their columns, and have given, unasked
and unaware, such publicity to our beloved Faith which no campaign of
teaching, however elaborately organized by the believers themselves, could
ever hope to achieve at the present time. Surely the invincible arm of
Baha'u'llah, working through strange and mysterious ways, will continue to
guard and uphold, to steer the course, to consolidate, and eventually to
achieve the world-wide recognition and triumph of His holy Faith.