Such marvelous progress, involving such diversified activities, extending
over so immense a field, within such a brief space of time, and
notwithstanding the smallness of the numbers of the participants in this
Global Crusade, the meagerness of their resources and the restrictions
imposed upon them by those who are either unsympathetic to their Cause, or
alarmed by their rising influence, or envious of the pervasive power of
the Faith they champion, impels me to announce, in anticipation of the
opening of the third phase of the Ten-Year Plan, the formation, during
Ridvan, 1957, in addition to the three Regional National Spiritual
Assemblies to be elected in 1956 in the African continent, of thirteen
National Spiritual Assemblies, some of which will be regional, others
independent, some interim and others permanent.
These National Spiritual Assemblies, representing no less than forty-two
territories will be established in four continents of the globe. Four will
be in Asia: in Japan, in Pakistan, in the Arabian Peninsula and in
South-East Asia. Three will be in Europe: in Scandinavia and Finland, in
the Benelux countries and in the Iberian Peninsula. Five will be in
America: the first, combining within its jurisdiction the Republics of
Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia; the second, comprising
the Republics of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela; the third
including Mexico and the Republics of Central America, Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama; the fourth embracing
the Islands of the Greater Antilles, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican
Republic, and the fifth in Alaska. And lastly, one will be in the
Antipodes, in the Dominion of New Zealand.
Responsibility for the convocation of the eight Baha'i Conventions, whose
delegates are to elect eight National Spiritual Assemblies in North,
Central and South America and in Europe, and which are to be held in
Anchorage, in Panama City, in Port-au-Prince, in Buenos Aires, in Lima, in
Stockholm, in Brussels and in Madrid, will devolve upon the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States of America; for the
convocation of the four conventions whose delegates are to elect four
National Spiritual Assemblies in Asia, and which are to be held in Tokyo,
in Karachi, in Bahrayn and in Jakarta, upon the National Spiritual
Assemblies of the Baha'is of the United States of America, of Persia, and
of India, Pakistan and Burma; and for the convocation of the convention
whose delegates are to elect the National Spiritual Assembly of New
Zealand, which is to be held in Auckland, upon the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Australia and New Zealand.