[From the Guardian:]
The work now engaging the attention of the members of the Baha'i
Communities in India, Pakistan and Burma, as it develops and is further
consolidated, acquires momentous importance, and should be pursued with
added zeal, ever deepening consecration, firmer unity, closer
collaboration, greater vigilance and nobler self-sacrifice. The sufferings
and trials they have recently experienced, the disappointments and
anxieties they have borne, the obstacles and setbacks they have
encountered in their path, should, far from causing them to flinch in
their determination or to relax in their efforts, act as a stimulant and
challenge, to scale loftier heights, and win mightier victories in their
strenuous labours for the propagation of their beloved Faith.
Though they are pressed by the multitudinous demands of an ever-growing
task, though overburdened by the manifold responsibilities of an
ever-expanding administration, I have, in my desire to enable them to
enrich the splendid record of their stewardship to the Faith in recent
years, and enhance the prestige of all three communities, urged them to
push still further the outposts of the Faith, both southward and eastward
of the present field of their joint labours. In the island of Ceylon, the
Republic of Indonesia and the sovereign State of Siam, which due to their
proximity must, sooner or later be opened up to the Faith by these
Communities, an effort, however tentative, must be made to establish a
nucleus, through the settlement of one or two pioneers which will, as
Plans are initiated in the years to come, develop into full-fledged
communities capable of illuminating the eastern and southern fringes of
the continent of Asia.
Through the successful conclusion of this added task to be shouldered by
these communities, the believers in these three communities will have
contributed, to a marked degree, to the raising to one hundred of the
number of countries included within the pale of the ever-advancing Faith
of Baha'u'llah. They will be emulating the example of their American,
Canadian and Persian brethren, who, through their respective plans, are
hastening this glorious consummation by initiating Baha'i activities in
Latin America, in Greenland and New Foundland and the territories of the
Arabian Peninsula.
Their solid achievements in recent years, the marvellous multiplication of
Baha'i Centres, the establishment of befitting national headquarters, the
remarkable impetus lent to the translation, publication and dissemination
of Baha'i Literature, embolden me to appeal to them, to undertake fresh
enterprises, ere the termination of the present Plan, and on however small
a scale, beyond the confines of India and Burma.
The greater the range of their collective enterprises, the mightier the
effusion of the Abha grace from on high, a grace that will sustain,
protect, guide and cheer them as they
tread the stormy yet glorious path of service for the furtherance of their
beloved Cause.
Let them, at this momentous stage of their historic labours, eliminate,
once and for all, every trace of inharmony from their midst, purge their
hearts from every lingering suspicion, prejudice and animosity, acquire a
clearer vision of the greatness of their Faith and the significance of
their mission, give heed to the urgent and tragic needs of the vast
multitudes of their disillusioned and sore-tried countrymen, now hungering
for the Bread of Life, and arise, as one man, to discharge their sacred
and inescapable responsibilities. The hour is propitious, the situation
critical, the Cause infinitely precious, the prize within reach and
inexpressibly glorious.