Soul stirred, heart uplifted by recollection of events signalizing the
twelve month period preceding the fateful year destined to witness the
consummation of series of plans formulated by Baha'i National Assemblies
of five continents, as well as the inauguration of the second, glorious
Jubilee of the Baha'i Dispensation. The irresistible march of the Faith
marked simultaneously by the steady consolidation of its administrative
institutions and the rapid enlargement of its limits. No less than
eighteen countries have been enrolled, raising the total number within its
orbit to one hundred twenty-four. Languages in which Baha'i literature is
printed or is being translated are now ninety, including twelve African
languages. The vast process of the rise and establishment of the World
Center of the Faith has been accelerated. Contingents of Hands of the
Cause have been successively appointed in every continent of the globe,
five of whom are shouldering responsibilities in the Holy Land. The
International Baha'i Council has been enlarged and officers designated.
An interview was accorded by, and literature presented to the Israel Prime
Minister in the course of his American visit by representatives of the
American National Assembly. Eighteen plots, a twenty-two thousand square
meter area, have been added to the International Baha'i endowments on the
slopes of Carmel. Government survey concluded paving the way for the
acquisition of over one hundred forty thousand square meters of property
in the precincts of the Most Holy Tomb at Bahji. The design for the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar on Carmel, conceived by the President of the
International Baha'i Council, completed. Privileges, exemption already
accorded Baha'i Holy Places in Israel by Ministry of Finance extended to
'Abdu'l-Baha's Home, Eastern and Western Pilgrim Houses. Pilgrimages to
World Center of the Faith resumed following decade of external hostilities
and internal disturbances agitating the Holy Land. Eight piers, designed
to support the thousand ton superstructure of the Bab's Sepulcher
constructed. Successive contracts, totalling approximately forty-seven
thousand dollars, for the construction of the structural work and the
erection of the Octagon signed, culminating in the completion of the first
unit of the superstructure, and the raising of eight pinnacles,
constituting the second crown of the Holy Edifice. Preparations to build
the Drum, the foundation unit of the golden Dome of the Sepulcher,
commenced.
Twin pillars of the future House of Justice erected in Central and South
America, additional pillar projected for Europe uniting the heart and
south of the continent.
Preliminary measures initiated for the convocation of four
intercontinental conferences in the African, American, European and
Asiatic continents, involving the participation of twelve National
Spiritual Assemblies, designed alike to befittingly celebrate the
Centenary of the Year Nine and to launch ten year crusade destined to
culminate in the Most Great Jubilee.
Two year plan of the Baha'i community of the British Isles formally
launched on the African continent through the dispatch of pioneers to the
virgin territories of Tanganyika, Uganda, and the Gold Coast, has been
reinforced by the assignment of Liberia to the American, Somaliland,
Nyasaland and North Rhodesia to the Persian, Zanzibar and Madagascar to
the Indian, and Libya and Algeria to the Egyptian, National Assemblies,
raising the number of States and Dependencies already soon to be opened to
the Faith to twenty-five.
First fruits garnered comprise purchase of seventeen thousand dollar
Haziratu'l-Quds in Kampala, settlement of Persian, American, British,
Egyptian and Portuguese pioneers in Liberia, North Rhodesia, Angola,
Libya, Spanish Morocco and Mozambique, inauguration of teaching classes,
public meetings and firesides, enrollment of several native Africans
belonging to the Teso, Yao, Buganda and Mutoco tribes, and the formation
of Spiritual Assemblies in Kampala and Dar-es-Salaam.
European Teaching campaign, exceeding fondest hopes, stimulated
successively by convocation of the fourth European Teaching Conference in
Scheveningen, representative of twenty-one countries, the first Iberian
Conference in Madrid, the third Swiss Conference in Bern, the first
Italian Conference in Rome, the first Benelux Conference in Brussels and
the establishment of headquarters in Amsterdam, Brussels,
Luxembourg-Ville, Bern and Lisbon.
The process of consolidation of the Faith stimulated by the recognition of
Baha'i Holy Days by the Superintendent of Public Schools in Kenosha,
Superintendent School in Milwaukee, and Rhode Island State Department of
Civil Service, and of the Baha'i marriage certificate by civil authorities
of Indianapolis; by the authorization by Adjutant General of Baha'i
identification for believers serving in U.S. Armed Forces.
Baha'i administrative centers steadily multiplying in Hijaz, Yemen,
Bahrayn, Ahsa, Koweit, Qatar, Dubai, Masqat, Aden, heralding convocation
of historic Baha'i Convention in the Arabian Peninsula, destined to
culminate in the erection of a pillar of the Universal House of Justice in
the midmost heart of the Islamic world.
The nineteen month plan, formulated by the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Indian subcontinent and Burma, aiming among other things at the
introduction and consolidation of the Faith in the capital cities of
Nepal, Siam, Indo-China, Malaya, Indonesia and Sarawak.
Ties binding International Baha'i Community to United Nations reinforced
by official participation of Baha'i delegates in regional Non-Governmental
Conferences in Istanbul, Managua, Den Passar, Paris and Lawrence, Kansas.
Historic site of House occupied by Baha'u'llah in Istanbul has been partly
purchased, and investigations conducted for the acquisition of similar
sites associated with the exile of the Founder of the Faith in Adrianople.
Northern outposts of the Faith reinforced by the settlement of pioneers in
Edgedes Minde, Greenland, and in Yellowknife, Canadian North Western
Territories.
Last but not least, the internal ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the
West has been terminated, and design adopted, funds allocated by the
Temple Trustees for the landscaping of its immediate surroundings,
constituting the final step for its approaching Jubilee. Appeal American
Baha'i community standing on threshold of concluding year of second Seven
Year Plan, traversing the last stage of the austerity period, confronted
by the approaching centenary of the darkest, bloodiest episode in Baha'i
history, associated with the nation-wide holocaust of Tahirih's martyrdom,
and with Baha'u'llah's imprisonment in the Siyah-_Ch_al in Tihran, to
arise and scale still loftier heights of self-sacrifice and efface the
deficit in the National Fund. Address in particular fervent plea to brace
itself to play a preponderating role in the impending world crusade, which
a world community, utilizing the agencies of a divinely-appointed world
administrative order, is preparing to launch, amidst the deepening shadows
of a world crisis for the execution of 'Abdu'l-Baha's world-encircling
plan and the subsequent unfoldment of a world civilization, and the
ultimate attainment of the supreme objective, the illumination and
redemption of a whole world.
Advise share message National Assemblies East and West.
--Shoghi
[Cablegram, April 23, 1952]