Share National Assemblies following announcement supplementing message
recently addressed to delegates of the Baha'i Conventions.
Annual elections of the second year, second decade, of the second Baha'i
century, were signalized by the formation of the first historic local
Assemblies in communities as diversified and far apart as Mecca, Qiblih of
Islamic world, Muscat and Riaz, situated on the shore and in the heart of
the Arabian Peninsula; in the Bahamas, British West Indies; in Diu Island,
Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Sargodha, Saigon, in Southeast Asia; Monte Carlo,
Basel, Mongat, Orleans, Marseilles, Bergen, Cologne, in Europe; in Reunion
Island, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean; in the holy
cities of Kazimayn and Najaf, strongholds of _Sh_i'ih orthodoxy in 'Iraq,
in addition to the group already established in Karbila; Teneriffe and Las
Palmas, in the Atlantic Ocean.
Africa alone boasts the establishment of above seventy new Assemblies,
raising the total number established since the launching of the systematic
simultaneous teaching campaigns on the African continent four years ago to
well above one hundred. Uganda in particular achieved the unique,
memorable feat of the formation of seventeen new Assemblies, swelling
number of Assemblies to forty-one, localities to over hundred, total
believers to almost nine hundred.
The sacred dust of the Bab's infant son, extolled in the Qayyumu'l-Asma
was respectfully and ceremoniously transferred on the anniversary of his
Father's martyrdom, in the presence of pilgrims and resident believers to
the Baha'i cemetery in _Sh_iraz, the prelude to the translation to the
same spot of the remains of the Bab's beloved and long-suffering consort.
Five additional incorporations of local Assemblies, including Suva, Fiji.
A pioneer has embarked for Loyalty Island, the last remaining unopened
island in the Pacific Ocean outside the Soviet orbit.
Negotiations for the purchase of national Haziras in Colombo and Jakarta
are nearing completion.
Preliminary steps have been undertaken for the establishment of a Baha'i
Publishing Trust in Tihran.
The design for the Mother Temple in the cradle of the Faith was unveiled
in the presence of pilgrims and resident believers assembled within the
Haram-i-Aqdas on the first day of Ridvan.
--Shoghi
[Cablegram, April 30, 1955]