In the Pacific area, where Baha'i exploits bid fair to outshine the feats
achieved in any other ocean, and indeed in every continent of the globe,
now competing for the palm of victory with the African continent itself,
preliminary measures have been undertaken for the formation of no less
than three of the thirteen national and regional spiritual assemblies
which are to be established in the course of this year's Ridvan
festivities. These three assemblies, the seats of which are to be located
in Japan, in Indonesia and in the Dominion of New Zealand, are destined to
function in regions where the yellow, the brown and white races
predominate, and in which the majority of the inhabitants belong either to
the Buddhist, the Muslim or Christian Faiths. In so vast and promising an
area, blessed by the labors of two Hands of the Cause of God, the number
of localities where Baha'is reside, which in the concluding years of the
Apostolic Age of the Faith, had barely reached ten, has now swelled to
over two hundred and ten, scattered over no less than forty islands. It
already boasts over seventeen hundred believers of the brown race alone,
more than fifty local spiritual assemblies, five national Haziratu'l-Quds,
three Baha'i schools, twenty-one incorporated local spiritual assemblies,
four states where Baha'i national endowments have been established, a site
purchased for its first projected Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, three territories
where the Baha'i Marriage Certificate is recognized, and three others
where Baha'i children have been allowed to observe the Baha'i Holy Days,
as well as the translation of Baha'i literature into no less than fifty of
the languages current among its indigenous population. It, moreover,
prides itself on the initiation of teaching activities in no less than a
hundred of the four hundred islands constituting one of its numerous
southern archipelagos.