Announce to National Assemblies of East and West joyful news of final
implementation of agreement with Israel authorities involving acquisition,
against payment of hundred eighteen thousand dollars, of eighteen plots,
approximately six acres, in precincts of Bab's Sepulcher.
The historic process of establishment of international Baha'i endowments
on Mount Carmel, inevitably held in abeyance for fifty years after the
inception of the Faith, initiated on the morrow of Baha'u'llah's
Ascension, through the purchase, in the course of 'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry,
of a limited number of plots in the immediate surroundings of the newly
erected Tomb in the heart of the Mountain of God, and greatly accelerated
through the purchase of extensive properties following the Master's
passing, necessitated by the unprecedented influx of immigrants to the
Holy Land, is now further reinforced, raising the total area owned on the
slopes of the Holy Mountain to almost fifty acres.
Desire to acknowledge the indefatigable efforts exerted by the first
western Baha'i pilgrim since opening of the door of pilgrimage, Lawrence
Hautz, in hastening the successful termination of the protracted
negotiations with the civil authorities of the Holy Land.
--Shoghi
[Cablegram, April 3, 1952]