Hand of Cause Appointment

Announce to all National Assemblies elevation of Paul Haney to rank of Hand of the Cause.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, March 19, 1954]

Roll of Honor—Additional Inscriptions

On occasion Naw-Rúz, marking opening the second decade of the second Bahá’í century, inform National Assemblies of the Bahá’í world that the following pioneers scattered over twenty-one virgin areas have been inscribed on the Roll of Honor since the fourth periodic announcement. Otillie Rhein, Mauritius; Olga Mills, Malta; Peter Lugayula, Ashanti Protectorate; Virginia Breaks, Caroline Islands; Dr. Fozdar, Andaman Islands; Elly Becking, Dutch New Guinea; Andrew and Nina Matthisen, Bahamas; Carl and Loretta Scherer, Macao; Gulnar Aftabi, Bahiyyih Rowhani, Kaykhosrow Dahmobadi, Diu Island; Jean and Tove Deleuran, Charles Ioas, Balearic Islands; Adib Bagdadi, Hussayn Halabi, Hadhramaut; Kenneth and Roberta Christian, Eyneddin and Tahereh Alai, Joan Powis, Southern Rhodesia; Hormoz Zendeh, Morocco International Zone; Howard and Joanne Menking, Cape Verde Islands; Elizabeth Bevan, Rhodes; Matthew Bullock, Dutch West Indies; Lillian Wyss, Samoa; Dulcie Dive, Cook Islands; Stanley Bolton, Jr., Tonga Islands; Gretta Jankko, Marquesas Islands; Jean Sevin, Tuamotu Archipelago; Alvin and Gertrude Blum, Solomon Islands; Bernard Guhrke, Kodiak Island; John Leonard, Falkland Islands; Munir Vakil, Kuria-Muria Islands; John and Audrey Robarts, Bechuanaland; Charles Dayton and wife, David Schreiber, Leeward Islands; Faiborz Roozebehyan, Gambia; Rahmat and Iran Muhajer, Mentawei Islands; Gertrud Ankersmit, Frisian Islands; Shamsi Navidi, Monaco; Roy and Elena Fernie, Gilbert and Ellice Islands; Qudratullah Rowhani, Khodarahm Mojgani, Máhe.

Ninety-one virgin areas have been opened to the Faith since the launching of the Crusade. Total number of territories within its pale now raised to two hundred nineteen. Remaining unopened territories, excluding Soviet Republics and satellites, twenty-five.

Appeal to prospective pioneers whilst the opening year of the Ten Year Crusade is speeding to its close, to expedite entry into unopened areas contributing thereby to the enhancement of the celebrations of the coming Ridván rendered memorable by the swift, magnificent victories achieved in the pioneering field, unsurpassed in the course of the eleven decades of Bahá’í history.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, March 21, 1954]

Institution of Hands of the Cause

To all the Hands of the Cause and all National Assemblies of the Bahá’í World:

Hail emergence of the unfoldment in the opening years of the second epoch of the formative age of the Bahá’í Dispensation of the august Institution foreshadowed by the Founder of the Faith and formally established in the Testament of the Center of His Covenant, closely associated in provisions of the same Will with Institution of the Guardianship, destined to assume in the fullness of time, under the aegis of the Guardian, the dual sacred responsibility for protection and propagation of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.

Desire to pay warm tribute to the services rendered severally and collectively by appointed hands at the World Center of the Faith and in territories beyond its confines.

Greatly value their support in the erection of the Báb’s Sepulcher on Mt. Carmel; in reinforcing ties with the newly emerged State of Israel; in the extension of the International Endowments in the Holy Land; in the initiation of the preliminary measures for the establishment of the Bahá’í World Administrative Center, as well as in their participation in four successive intercontinental Teaching Conferences; in their extensive travels in African territories, in North, Central and South America, in the European, Asiatic and Australian Continents.

This newly constituted body, embarked on its mission with such auspicious circumstances, is now entering the second phase of its evolution signalized by forging of ties with the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’í world for the purpose of lending them assistance in attaining the objectives of the Ten Year Plan.

The hour is ripe for the fifteen Hands residing outside the Holy Land to proceed during Ridván with the appointment, in each continent separately, from among the resident Bahá’ís of that Continent, of Auxiliary Boards, whose members, acting as deputies, assistants and advisers of the Hands, must increasingly lend their assistance for the promotion of the interests of the Ten Year Crusade.

Advise the Hands of the Asiatic, American and European Continents to convene in Ṭihrán, Wilmette and Frankfurt respectively for the purposes of consultation and nomination.

The Hands of the Cause of the African and Australian Continents must exercise their functions in Kampala and Sydney respectively.

The Auxiliary Boards of the American, European and African Continents must consist of nine members each, of the Asiatic and Australian continents of seven and two respectively.

The allocation of areas in each continent to the members of the Auxiliary Boards, as well as subsidiary matters regarding the development of the activities of the newly appointed bodies, and the manner of collaboration with the National Spiritual Assemblies in their respective Continents, is left to the discretion of the Hands.

All Boards must report and be responsible to the Hands charged with their appointment.

The Hands of each Continent in their turn must keep in close touch with, and report the result of the nominations and progress of the activities of the Boards to the National Assemblies in their respective continents, as well as to the four Hands residing in the Holy Land destined to act as liaison between themselves and the Guardian of the Faith.

Urge the initiation of five Continental Bahá’í Funds which, as they develop, will increasingly facilitate the discharge of the functions assigned to the Boards.

Transmitting five thousand pounds as my initial contribution to be equally divided among the five Continents.

Appeal to the twelve National Assemblies and individuals to insure a steady augmentation of these Funds through annual assignment in National Budgets and by individual contributions.

Advise transmit contributions to Varqá, Holley, Giachery, Banání and Dunn acting as Trustees of the Asiatic, American, European, African and Australian Funds respectively.

Fervently supplicating at the Holy Threshold for an unprecedented measure of blessings on this vital and indispensable organ of the embryonic and steadily unfolding Bahá’í Administrative Order, presaging the emergence of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh which must pave the way for the establishment of the World Civilization destined to attain maturity in the course of successive Dispensations in the Five Thousand Century Bahá’í Cycle.

Airmail copies to all Hands and National Assemblies.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, April 6, 1954]

A Divinely-Guided Faith

On the eve of this Ridván Festival marking the opening of the second decade of the second Bahá’í century, and coinciding with the termination of the first year of the World Spiritual Crusade, I hail with feelings of joy and wonder the superb feats of the heroic company of the Knights of the Lord of Hosts in pursuance of their sublime mission for the spiritual conquest of the planet. The first twelve months of this decade-long enterprise unexampled in its scope, significance and potentialities in the world’s spiritual history and launched simultaneously, amidst the climax of the world-wide festivities of a memorable Holy Year, in the American, the European, the African, the Asiatic and the Australian continents, have witnessed the hoisting of the banner of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in no less than a hundred virgin territories of the globe. The total number of the newly opened sovereign states and dependencies comprising Principalities, Sultanates, Emirates, Sheikhdoms, Protectorates, Trust Territories and Crown Colonies, scattered over the face of the earth, represents almost seven-eighths of all the territories, exclusive of the Soviet Republics and Satellites, destined to be opened in the course of an entire decade. The northern frontiers of a divinely guided, rapidly marching, majestically expanding Faith have been pushed, in consequence of the phenomenal success recently achieved by the vanguard of Bahá’u’lláh’s crusaders, beyond the Arctic Circle as far as Arctic Bay, Franklin, 73 degrees latitude. Its southern limits have now reached the Falkland Islands in the neighborhood of Magallanes, the world’s southernmost city. Other outlying outposts have been established in places as far apart as Sikkim at the foot of the Himalayas, the Lofoten Islands in the heart of the European Northland, Fezzan on the northern fringe of the Sahara Desert, the Andaman Islands and the Seychelles, the penal colonies in the Indian Ocean, the three Guianas and the leper colonies on the Atlantic Coast, the Faroe and Shetland Islands, the wind-swept and inhospitable archipelagos of the North Sea, Hadhramaut on the sun-baked shores of the Arabian Peninsula, St. Helena isolated in the midst of the South Atlantic Ocean and the Gilbert Islands, the war-devastated, sparsely populated Atolls situated in the heart of the Pacific Ocean.

God’s infant Faith, confined during the first nine years of its existence to its birthland and the adjoining territory of ‘Iráq, reaching, in the course of the thirty-nine years of Bahá’u’lláh’s Ministry, to thirteen other lands, enlarged, during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s twenty-nine year Ministry, through the opening of twenty additional countries, only succeeded, after the lapse of three-quarters of a century, in including within its orbit thirty-five countries within both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

The subsequent quarter of a century, constituting the first Epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation, witnessed the planting of the banner of the Faith in over forty territories of the globe, raising the number of countries included within its pale, on the eve of the Centenary Celebrations of the Declaration of the Báb’s Mission to seventy-eight. The nine-year interval separating the first from the second Bahá’í Jubilee was signalized by the spiritual conquest of no less than fifty countries of the globe, whilst the first year of the Ten Year Plan has been immortalized by the opening of one hundred countries, swelling the number of the sovereign states and dependencies enlisted under the standard of the Cause of God to two hundred and twenty-eight. All territories in North, Central and South America; all sovereign states and principalities on the continent of Europe, excluding the Russian Republics and Satellites; all territories on the Asiatic continent, with the exception of Tibet, of Bhutan and of the Soviet Republics; all the islands of the Mediterranean; all the islands of the North Sea, with the exception of Spitzbergen; all African territories with the exception of Spanish Guinea; all the islands of the North and South Atlantic Ocean except Anticosti and St. Thomas; all the islands of the Pacific Ocean except Comoro Islands, Cocos Island, Nicobar Islands, Hainan Island, Portuguese Timor, Chagos Archipelago, Loyalty Islands, Marshall Islands, Admiralty Islands, Mariana Islands, are now included within the orbit of an irresistibly unfolding, rapidly consolidating, world-girdling Administrative Order.

The number of the European, the African, the Asiatic, and the American-Indian languages, including seven supplementary languages, into which Bahá’í literature has been, and is being translated, is over forty-two, raising the total number of the translations undertaken since the inception of the Faith to one hundred and thirty.

The African Campaign, outshining the brilliant success of the enterprise launched in Latin America, throwing into shade the splendor of the victories won in recent years on the European continent, eclipsing all previous collective pioneer undertakings embarked upon in the Asiatic and Australian continents, has almost doubled, in the course of a single year, the number of territories opened since the introduction of the Faith in that continent over eighty years ago. The total number of converts to the Faith belonging to the African race has passed the six hundred mark. The total number of African Bahá’í centers has now been raised to over one hundred and ninety. The total number of the tribes indigenous to the soil of that continent represented in the Faith is now over sixty.

A single territory out of the forty-five territories already opened to the Faith in the African continent, situated in its very heart and which, a little over two years ago did not possess a single Bahá’í, now boasts of over five hundred colored converts, who are settled in over eighty localities, are drawn from thirty tribes, are provided with thirteen local Assemblies, and anticipate the immediate formation of about ten additional Assemblies. This same territory has, moreover, distinguished itself throughout the entire Bahá’í world through the dispatch of nine members of its mother Assembly for the purpose of pioneering in neighboring centers, as well as in territories situated on the eastern and western coasts of the African continent. A number of the newly-won recruits in some of these territories have, moreover, been instrumental in winning the allegiance of some of the members of their race, and have, in their turn, succeeded in opening no less than three neighboring territories in that continent.

Contact has been established with no less than twenty-two American Indian tribes, raising the total number of tribes contacted throughout the Western Hemisphere to thirty-four. The first Greenlandic, the first Pygmy, the first Berber, the first Fijian, Bahá’ís have been enrolled, swelling the number of races represented in the Bahá’í World Community to thirty-five.

The opening year of this World Spiritual Crusade has, moreover, gathered significance through the convocation first of the Stockholm, and later of the New Delhi Intercontinental Teaching Conferences, which, together with the two previous Conferences held during the first part of the Holy Year in Kampala and Wilmette, assembled a total of over thirty-four hundred followers of the Faith from more than eighty countries of both the Eastern and the Western Hemispheres and representing the principal races of mankind.

Within the confines of the Holy Land, “the Heart of the world and the Qiblih of all nations,” the erection of the first base stones of the ornamental crown of the Dome of the Báb’s Sepulcher which had commenced with Naw-Rúz of the Holy Year, was followed successively by the laying, during the Ridván period, of the first of the twelve thousand gilded tiles destined to cover the two-hundred and fifty square meter area of the Dome and the placing of the stone lantern which marked the consummation of the three quarters of a million dollar enterprise, and coincided with the closing period of the Year associated with the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Mission of Bahá’u’lláh. The site for the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Holy Land has been selected—an area of approximately twenty thousand square meters—situated at the head of the Mountain of God, in close proximity to the Spot hallowed by the footsteps of Bahá’u’lláh, near the time-honored Cave of Elijah, and associated with the revelation of the Tablet of Carmel, the Charter of the World Spiritual and Administrative Centers of the Faith on that mountain. Funds totaling one hundred thousand dollars have, moreover, been contributed by one of the Hands of the Cause, residing in the Holy Land, and negotiations have been initiated with the Israeli authorities for the purpose of effecting the immediate purchase of the selected site. Measures have been undertaken and Bahá’í Continental Funds inaugurated in anticipation of the forthcoming appointment by the fifteen Hands residing outside the Holy Land of five Auxiliary Boards, one in each of the continents of the globe, the members of which will act as deputies of the Hands in their respective continents, and will aid and advise them in the effective prosecution of the Ten-Year Plan, and will assist them, at a later period, in the discharge of their dual and sacred task of safeguarding the Faith and of promoting its teaching activities. The international Bahá’í endowments, situated in the heart of Mt. Carmel, and in the plain of Akká, already extending over an area of over three hundred and fifty thousand square meters, have been enlarged through the acquisition of properties overlooking the Resting Places of the Most Exalted Leaf and of the Purest Branch, which, when added to the plots situated on the ridge of Mt. Carmel, on its western extremity and in the close neighborhood of the Shrine built within its heart—for the acquisition of which negotiations have been set afoot—will constitute an addition of over thirty thousand square meters to the vast area of Bahá’í holdings permanently dedicated to the Shrines of the Founder of the Faith and of its Herald. The embellishment of the Ḥaram-i-Aqdas, the outer Sanctuary of Bahá’u’lláh’s Sepulcher, already accomplished in the course of the Holy Year commemorating the centenary of the birth of His prophetic Mission, has been greatly enhanced through the laying out, on both its northern and southern sides, of formal gardens, extending over an area of ten thousand square meters, providing a befitting approach to His Mansion and considerably widening the area stretching in front of His holy Sepulcher. The design of the international Bahá’í Archives, the first stately Edifice destined to usher in the establishment of the World Administrative Center of the Faith on Mt. Carmel—the Ark referred to by Bahá’u’lláh in the closing passages of His Tablet of Carmel—has been completed, and plans and drawings forwarded to Italy for the purpose of securing bids for its construction immediately after the conclusion of the necessary preliminary steps taken in the Holy Land for its forthcoming erection. Israel Branches of the British, the Persian, the Canadian and the Australian Bahá’í National Spiritual Assemblies have been legally established, recognized formally as Religious Societies by the Israeli Civil Authorities, and empowered to hold without restriction title to immovable property in any part of the country on behalf of their parent Assemblies. Contact has moreover been established with the President of Israel, its Prime Minister and five other Cabinet Ministers, as well as with the President of the Knesset, culminating in the establishment of a special Bahá’í Department in the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and in an official statement by the Head of this Ministry to Parliament emphasizing the international scope of the Faith and the importance of its World Center—a series of events that have paved the way for the forthcoming official visit, during the early days of the Ridván period, of the President of Israel, himself, to the Báb’s Sepulcher on Mt. Carmel.

The site of the Síyáh-Chál—that pestilential subterranean Pit, the scene of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s prophetic Mission, and the holiest place in the capital city of His native land—has been recently purchased, together with the surrounding area, involving an expenditure of approximately four hundred thousand dollars contributed by a Persian follower of the Faith, whilst negotiations have been initiated for the acquisition of the site of the Báb’s incarceration in the mountains of Ádhirbayján. Full rights have been accorded to Bahá’í women residing in the cradle of the Faith, to participate in the membership of both national and local Bahá’í Spiritual Assemblies, removing thereby the last remaining obstacle to the enjoyment of complete equality of rights in the conduct of the administrative affairs of the Persian Bahá’í Community.

Eleven Temple Funds have been inaugurated, amounting to almost a quarter of a million dollars, for the purchase of land for future Bahá’í Temples in the Western Hemisphere, in the European, the African, the Asiatic and the Australian continents, followed by the purchase of a four-acre plot, commanding an extensive view of the Pacific Ocean and the greater portion of Greater Sydney area, and by the selection of appropriate sites outside the Cities of Frankfurt and of Panama City.

The institutions of Bahá’í National Hazíratu’l-Quds in East and West, already reaching an estimated value of over a million and a half dollars, have been enhanced through the purchase and formal opening of the Hazíratu’l-Quds of the Bahá’ís of Paris, destined to evolve into the national administrative headquarters of the French Bahá’í Community, and through the inauguration of National Hazíratu’l-Quds Funds in Anchorage, Alaska, as well as in the capital cities of Italy and of Switzerland.

The initial landscaping of the area surrounding the Mother Temple of the West, involving an expenditure of over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, has been completed and been followed by an appropriation of two hundred and twenty thousand dollars by the United States National Spiritual Assembly for the completion of the entire project. The nature of the first Dependency of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of Wilmette has been finally decided upon by the members of that same Assembly, in anticipation of its early establishment within the precincts of the Mother Temple of the West. The Local Spiritual Assemblies of San Diego, Sacramento and Fresno in California, of Tucson in Arizona, and of Oak Park in Illinois have been legally incorporated, raising the number of national and local Bahá’í incorporated Assemblies in the United States of America and in the entire Bahá’í world to sixty-three and one hundred and twenty, respectively. National Bahá’í endowments have been established in Anchorage, Alaska. The Bahá’í Assemblies of Tucson, Arizona and of Sacramento, California have been qualified to conduct legal Bahá’í marriage services. Bahá’í Holy Days have been recognized in Los Angeles, California and Castro Valley, California; Niles Township, Michigan; Seattle, Washington; Newton, Massachusetts; Prince George County, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; Kenosha, Wisconsin; Maywood, Illinois.

The spiritual conquest of one hundred territories of the globe, the steady rise of the embryonic World Order of the Faith, and the multiplication and consolidation of its institutions have, in the course of the opening year of this World Spiritual Crusade, been paralleled by a no less startling decline in the fortunes of the enemies of the Faith, as evidenced by the removal, by the Hand of Providence, of its arch-enemy in Persia who, for thirty years, savagely attacked its Founders and its chief Promoter, and tirelessly schemed to extinguish its light, dishonor its name and wreck its institutions, as well as by the death of two others, who, in varying degrees, demonstrated their ingratitude and infidelity to the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant.

The opening phase of this gigantic, divinely propelled, world-encircling Crusade has been triumphantly concluded. The success crowning the initial stage in its unfoldment has exceeded our fondest expectations. The most vital and spectacular objective of the Ten Year Plan has been virtually attained ere the termination of the first year of this decade-long stupendous enterprise. The second phase, now auspiciously ushered in, must witness, in all the territories of the planet, whether newly opened or not, an upsurge of activity which, in its range and intensity, will excel the exploits which have so greatly enlarged the limits, and noised abroad the fame, of the Cause of God.

The energetic and systematic prosecution of the all important teaching work both at home and abroad, designed to increase rapidly the number of the avowed and active supporters of the Faith; the preservation, at any cost, of the prizes so laboriously won in the far flung, the numerous and newly opened territories of the globe; the maintenance, by every available means, of the status of local Spiritual Assemblies already established throughout the Bahá’í world; the steady multiplication of isolated centers, of groups and of local Assemblies in order to hasten the emergence of no less than forty-eight National Spiritual Assemblies in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres; the prompt conclusion of negotiations for the purchase of sites for future Bahá’í Temples in the American, the European, the Asiatic and the African continents; the initiation of Funds for the establishment of National Hazíratu’l-Quds in the capital cities of the Sovereign States and in the chief cities of the Dependencies specifically mentioned in the Plan; the speedy fulfillment of the task undertaken for the translation and publication of Bahá’í literature in the languages allocated under that same Plan, to various National Spiritual Assemblies; the continued acquisition of Bahá’í Holy Places in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land; the adoption of preparatory measures for the construction of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs of Ṭihrán and of Frankfurt; the establishment of the first Dependency of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Wilmette; the inauguration of National Bahá’í endowments designed to pave the way for the formation of National Spiritual Assemblies; the lending of a fresh impetus to the incorporation of local Spiritual Assemblies; the establishment of Bahá’í Publishing Trusts—these stand out as the essential objectives of the phase now unfolding before the eyes of the Bahá’í communities in the five continents of the globe.

I direct my fervent plea to all the delegates assembled at the twelve annual Bahá’í Conventions to ponder these objectives in their hearts, to dedicate themselves anew to the tasks now challenging the spirit and combined resources of the entire body of the followers of the Faith, to rouse all the communities they represent to assume a worthy share in the common and gigantic effort that must needs be exerted for the attainment of the aforementioned goals, ensuring thereby the uninterrupted progress and the ultimate consummation of the noblest collective enterprise undertaken by the followers of the Most Great Name for the propagation and the establishment of His Faith over the entire face of the planet.

—Shoghi

[April, 1954]

Glad Tidings

On the morrow of the close of the Ridván period share with National Assemblies of the Bahá’í world additional glad tidings supplementing the message addressed a fortnight ago to delegates to national Conventions East and West.

Six acre and five acre plots have been purchased in Kampala and Panama City as sites of future Temples in the heart of the African continent and Central America.

First historic African Spiritual Assemblies have been formed in Johannesburg, Brazzaville, Victoria, Topremang, Casablanca, Tangier, Algiers, Tripoli, Bukora. In Uganda alone, eleven additional Assemblies have been established, over three hundred and eighty additional converts enrolled, raising the total white and Negro believers to over six hundred and seventy. The number of localities where Bahá’ís reside on the Arabian Peninsula is now over fifteen, in Egypt and Sudan over forty, in the British Isles over fifty, in Australasia over sixty, in the ten European goal countries over seventy, in Germany and Austria over seventy, in Uganda over eighty, in Canada over a hundred, in Latin America over a hundred and ten, in the Indian subcontinent and Burma over a hundred and thirty, in the African continent over a hundred and ninety, in Persia over six hundred and in the United States over twelve hundred, swelling the number of Bahá’í centers scattered over the surface of the globe to well nigh twenty-nine hundred.

Additional National Hazíratu’l-Quds Funds have been inaugurated in ten countries of Central America.

The number of Bahá’í books and pamphlets for the blind transcribed into Braille, English, Esperanto, German, Japanese, now totals over a hundred and ten.

The President of the State of Israel, accompanied by Mrs. Ben Zvi, visited, as anticipated, the Shrines on Mount Carmel, following a reception in their honor held in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s house marking the first official visit paid by the Head of a sovereign independent State to the Sepulchers of the Martyr-Prophet of the Faith and the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant.

The following pioneers have been inscribed on the Roll of Honor since the fifth periodic announcement: Bruce Matthews, Howard Gilliland, Labrador; Olivia Kelsey and Florence Ullrich, Monaco; Joan Powis, South Rhodesia; Sohrab Payman, San Marino; Samuel Njiki, Mehrangiz Munsiff, French Cameroons; Gail Avery, Baranof Island; Benedict Eballa, Ashanti Protectorate; Martin Manga, Northern Territories Protectorate; Gayle Woolson, Galapagòs Islands; Bula Stewart and John Allen and wife, Swaziland; Charles Duncan, Harry Clark, John Fozdar, Brunei; David Tanyi, French Togoland; Edward Tabe, Albert Buapiah, British Togoland; Kay Zinky, Magdalen Islands; John and Margery Kellberg, Dutch West Indies; Robert Powers, Jr., and Cynthia Olson, Mariana Islands; Habib Esfahani, French West Africa.

The Roll of Honor, after the lapse of one year since the launching of the World Crusade, is now closed, with the exception of pioneers who have already left for their destination, as well as those first arriving in the few remaining virgin territories inside and outside Soviet Republics and satellites.

The Concourse on High will continue to applaud the highly meritorious services rendered by future volunteers arising to reinforce the historic work so nobly initiated by the Knights of Bahá’u’lláh in the far-flung, newly opened territories. Posterity will likewise record with admiration and gratitude the initial victories destined to be won in the course of the spiritual conquest of the continents and islands of the globe.

—Shoghi

[Cablegram, May 4, 1954]

A Succession of Victories

The opening months of the second phase of the Ten-Year Plan have witnessed, on the American, the European, the African, the Asiatic and the Australian fronts, a succession of victories rivalling, in their variety, rapidity and significance, the prodigious efforts exerted, and the superb exploits achieved, during the first twelve months of the Global Crusade, by the mighty company of the stalwart Knights of Bahá’u’lláh in well nigh a hundred virgin territories scattered over the face of the planet.

Seven virgin territories have been opened to the Faith since the announcement on the morrow of the Ridván Festival, raising the total number of the Sovereign States and Dependencies enlisted under the banner of the Cause of God to two hundred and thirty-five. The number of the unopened territories outside of the Soviet Orbit has now shrunk to eight, namely: Spitzbergen, Anticosti Island, St. Thomas Island, Nicobar Islands, Cocos Island, Socotra Island, Loyalty Islands, and the Chagos Archipelago. The following pioneers have been inscribed on the Roll of Honor since my last sixth periodic announcement: Elizabeth Stamp, St. Helena; Mr. and Mrs. Harold Fitzner, Portuguese Timor; Elise Schreiber, Spanish Guinea; Violet Hoehnke, Admiralty Islands; Shahpoor Rowhani and Ardeshir Faroodi, Bhutan; Mehraben Sohaili, Comoro Islands; Marcia Atwater, Marshall Islands.

The number of Bahá’í centers scattered over the continents and islands of the globe has now passed the three thousand mark. A contract has been signed for the purchase of a three-acre plot as the site of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of Europe, situated on a plateau near the Taunus Hills in the vicinity of the City of Frankfurt. A thirty thousand square meter property located on the banks of the Tigris has been acquired as the site of the future Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Holy City of Baghdád. A plot lying in the outskirts of New Delhi has been secured at the price of a hundred thousand rupees as the site of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Indian sub-continent. A twelve thousand dollar plot has been bought in Johannesburg as the site of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of South Africa. A five-year Plan has been initiated in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land designed to raise twelve million tumans for the projected construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in the cradle of the Faith. A six thousand dollar plot has been purchased in the vicinity of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf and registered in the name of the newly established Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles. A property has been acquired opposite the Mother Temple of the West to serve as a possible site for the first Dependency of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of Wilmette. A contract has been signed, pending registration of a house valued at ten thousand dollars and situated in the immediate neighborhood of the Báb’s Sepulcher, in the name of the recently established Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada. Preliminary steps have been taken for the acquisition of two plots, the one situated on the ridge of Mt. Carmel, the other to the west of the Báb’s resting-place and for their subsequent registration in the name of the Israel Branches of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of Persia and of Australia and New Zealand, respectively. A national Hazíratu’l-Quds has been purchased in Kabul and one in Johannesburg. Arrangements will soon be completed for the purchase of a building costing over eighteen thousand dollars for a national Hazíratu’l-Quds in Tunis. Funds totalling over one hundred thousand dollars have been initiated for the purchase of similar institutions in Anchorage, Asunciòn, Auckland, Bahrayn, Beirut, Bern, Bogota, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Ciudad Trujillo, Colombo, Copenhagen, Guatemala, Havana, Helsingfors, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, La Paz, Lima, Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Managua, Mexico City, Montevideo, Oslo, Panama City, Port-au-Prince, Quito, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San José, Santiago, San Salvador, Stockholm, Suva, Tegucigalpa, The Hague, Tokyo, and Vienna, as well as for the acquisition of the Garden of Ridván in Baghdád, the transfer of the remains of the wife of the Báb in Shíráz and for the purchase of the sites associated with Bahá’u’lláh’s exile in Istanbul and in Adrianople. The initiation of these Funds has been made possible to a notable extent as a result of the successive contributions made by the Hand of the Cause, Amelia Collins, outstanding benefactress of the Faith, for the furtherance of some of the most vital objectives of the Ten-Year Plan. Negotiations are now afoot aiming at the acquisition of the fortress of Chihríq including its precincts involving the expenditure of a sum of over two hundred thousand tumans. Preliminary documents have been signed in connection with the purchase from the Development Authority of the State of Israel of five houses, situated at the foot of Mt. Carmel and adjoining the last terrace of the Báb’s Shrine, for a sum of approximately sixty thousand dollars.

The phenomenal progress of the African Campaign, alike in the teaching and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity, has been maintained, most conspicuously in the heart of that continent, as evidenced by the ever-swelling number of African converts, now numbering over seven hundred, three hundred and eighty of which have been added in the course of a single year. The number of Bahá’í centers now spread over the face of this continent is a hundred and ninety-five. The number of African tribes represented in the Faith in this same continent has reached eighty-five. The African languages into which Bahá’í literature has been translated now number thirty-four, whilst the number of African local spiritual assemblies has swelled to fifty.

I feel the hour is now ripe for the adoption of preliminary measures designed to pave the way for the simultaneous erection during Ridván of 1956 of three pillars of the future Universal House of Justice in the North, the South and the very heart of this long dormant continent. The first of these pillars will be designated the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Central and East Africa; the second the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South and West Africa; and the third the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North-West Africa. Responsibility for the convocation of the three epoch-making conventions, to be held in Kampala, Johannesburg and Tunis, preparatory to the emergence of these three central administrative institutions of the fast-evolving Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in the African continent will devolve upon the British, the United States and the Egyptian Spiritual Assemblies, respectively.

The jurisdiction of the first Assembly will embrace Uganda, Tanganyika, Kenya, the Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi, French Equatorial Africa, Zanzibar, the Comoro Islands and the Seychelles. That of the second will extend over the Union of South Africa, South-West Africa, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Mozambique, Angola, Bechuanaland, Basutoland, Swaziland, Nyasaland, Zululand, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion Island and St. Helena. That of the third will include Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco (Int. Zone), Spanish Morocco, French Morocco, Spanish Sahara, Rio de Oro, Spanish Guinea, Ashanti Protectorate, French Cameroons, British Cameroons, Northern Territories Protectorate, French Togoland, British Togoland, Gambia, Portuguese Guinea, French West Africa, the Gold Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, and St. Thomas Island.

Abyssinia, Libya, Eritrea, British, French and Italian Somaliland and Socotra Island will, as of Ridván of that same year, fall within the administrative jurisdiction of the Egyptian National Spiritual Assembly which will from then on be designated as the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North-East Africa. All African territories originally allocated to the United States, the Persian, the Egyptian, the Indian, and the British National Spiritual Assemblies will continue, in the course of the Ten-Year Plan, to benefit from the advantages of sustained assistance by these Assemblies—an assistance that will enable them to assume an ever-increasing share in the steadily expanding activities of the nascent National Spiritual Assemblies.

Only local spiritual assemblies duly constituted during Ridván 1955 will be qualified to elect delegates to these four historic conventions to be convened during the succeeding year.

I call upon the Hand of the Cause, Músá Banání, to act as my representative at each of the three Conventions destined to culminate in the emergence of these three momentous institutions. I moreover invite the Chairman of the United States, the British and the Egyptian National Spiritual Assemblies to convene the aforementioned Conventions falling within the respective jurisdiction of these Assemblies and urge as many members of the African Auxiliary Board as possible to attend the sessions, and lend their support to the deliberations, of these gatherings. I feel, moreover, moved at this juncture to stress the urgent necessity for all groups established throughout the African continent as well as in the islands situated in its neighborhood—already four score in number—to seize their present golden opportunity during the fast-fleeting months separating them from next Ridván, and exert every effort to attain assembly status which will enable them to participate in the election of, and contribute to the broadening of the foundations of the projected National Spiritual Assemblies.

I earnestly appeal to all Bahá’í communities, and in particular to their national elected representatives in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia to brace themselves and vie with one another in emulating the example of their African sister communities ranking among the youngest in the Bahá’í world. I entreat them, through a greater dispersal and an intensification of teaching activity, to lend an unprecedented impetus to the multiplication of local spiritual assemblies in their respective areas, accelerating thereby the dynamic process of the formation of National Spiritual Assemblies—a process destined to usher in the third and most brilliant phase, and constituting unquestionably the noblest objective, of the most stupendous crusade ever launched in the course of eleven decades of Bahá’í history.

Share this message with the Hands of the Cause and the National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the Bahá’í World.

—Shoghi

[October 1, 1954]

Administrative Seats of Divinely-Appointed Institutions

I hail, with feelings of thankfulness and relief, the signature, on the eve of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension, of a contract for the immediate expropriation, by the Israeli Finance Minister, on the recommendation of the Mayor of the City of Haifa, of a thirteen-hundred meter plot, owned by the sister of Fareed, notorious enemy of the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant. This historic act paves the way for the early transfer of the title deed of this plot by the State of Israel to the Bahá’í Community, now engaged in establishing and consolidating its World Administrative Center in the Holy Land.

The truculence, greed and obstinacy, of this breaker of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, demonstrated by her persistent refusal to sell and by the exorbitant price subsequently demanded, raised, during more than thirty years, an almost insurmountable obstacle to the acquisition of an area which, however circumscribed, occupies a central position amidst the extensive Bahá’í domains in the heart of God’s Holy Mountain, is situated in the vicinity of the Báb’s Sepulcher, overlooks the Tomb of the Greatest Holy Leaf, and adjoins the resting-places of the Brother and the Mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and which, through deliberate neglect, has been allowed to become an eyesore to all those who throng the embellished precincts of a Mausoleum rightly regarded as the second holiest Shrine in the Bahá’í world.

The ownership of this plot will now enable us to locate the site, excavate the foundations, and erect the structure, of the International Bahá’í Archives, designed by the Hand of the Cause, Mason Remey, President of the International Bahá’í Council, which will serve as the permanent and befitting repository for the priceless and numerous relics associated with the Twin Founders of the Faith, with the Perfect Exemplar of its teachings and with its heroes, saints and martyrs, and the building of which constitutes one of the foremost objectives of the Ten-Year Plan.

The raising of this Edifice will in turn herald the construction, in the course of successive epochs of the Formative Age of the Faith, of several other structures, which will serve as the administrative seats of such divinely appointed institutions as the Guardianship, the Hands of the Cause, and the Universal House of Justice. These Edifices will, in the shape of a far-flung arc, and following a harmonizing style of architecture, surround the resting-places of the Greatest Holy Leaf, ranking as foremost among the members of her sex in the Bahá’í Dispensation, of her Brother, offered up as a ransom by Bahá’u’lláh for the quickening of the world and its unification, and of their Mother, proclaimed by Him to be His chosen “consort in all the worlds of God.” The ultimate completion of this stupendous undertaking will mark the culmination of the development of a world-wide divinely-appointed Administrative Order whose beginnings may be traced as far back as the concluding years of the Heroic Age of the Faith.

This vast and irresistible process, unexampled in the spiritual history of mankind, and which will synchronize with two no less significant developments—the establishment of the Lesser Peace and the evolution of Bahá’í national and local institutions—the one outside and the other within the Bahá’í world—will attain its final consummation, in the Golden Age of the Faith, through the raising of the standard of the Most Great Peace, and the emergence, in the plenitude of its power and glory, of the focal Center of the agencies constituting the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. The final establishment of this seat of the future Bahá’í World Commonwealth will signalize at once the proclamation of the sovereignty of the Founder of our Faith and the advent of the Kingdom of the Father repeatedly lauded and promised by Jesus Christ.

This World Order will, in turn, in the course of successive Dispensations of the Bahá’í Cycle, yield its fairest fruit through the birth and flowering of a civilization, divinely inspired, unique in its features, world-embracing in its scope, and fundamentally spiritual in its character—a civilization destined as it unfolds to derive its initial impulse from the spirit animating the very institutions which, in their embryonic state, are now stirring in the womb of the present Formative Age of the Faith.

Advise share this message with the Hands of the Cause and the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the Bahá’í world.

—Shoghi

[November 27, 1954]