Part 23
ASSURE ATTENDANTS SUPPLICATING ALMIGHTY BLESSINGS DELIBERATIONS MAY CONFERENCE LEND TREMENDOUS IMPETUS PROCESS CONSOLIDATION HOMELAND INITIATION PIONEER ACTIVITIES AFRICAN CONTINENT.
SHOGHI
Letter of 16 January 1951
16 January 1951
(Copy of a cable from the Guardian to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States dated 16 January 1951, sent also to the British National Spiritual Assembly.) ASSISTANCE AFRICA PROJECT THROUGH FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION PARTICIPATION PIONEERS WHITE COLOURED CLOSE CONSULTATION CO-OPERATION BRITISH ASSEMBLY NECESSARY INDEPENDENT CAMPAIGN NOT INTENDED FERVENTLY PRAYING PARTICIPATION BRITISH AMERICAN PERSIAN EGYPTIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES UNIQUE EPOCHMAKING ENTERPRISE AFRICAN CONTINENT MAY PROVE PRELUDE CONVOCATION FIRST AFRICAN TEACHING CONFERENCE LEADING EVENTUALLY INITIATION UNDERTAKINGS INVOLVING COLLABORATION ALL NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES BAHA'I WORLD THEREBY PAVING WAY ULTIMATE ORGANIC UNION THESE ASSEMBLIES THROUGH FORMATION INTERNATIONAL HOUSE JUSTICE DESTINED LAUNCH ENTERPRISES EMBRACING WHOLE BAHA'I WORLD ACCLAIM SIMULTANEOUS INAUGURATION CRUSADE LINKING ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY FOUR NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES EAST WEST WITHIN FOUR CONTINENTS AND BIRTH FIRST INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL WORLD CENTRE FAITH TWIN COMPELLING EVIDENCES RESISTLESS UNFOLDMENT EMBRYONIC DIVINELY APPOINTED WORLD ORDER BAHA'U'LLAH.
SHOGHI
Letter of 17 January 1951
17 January 1951
INFORM MUSA BANANI HIGHLY APPROVE PIONEERING AFRICA WITH NA_KH_JAVANI FERVENTLY PRAYING FOR HIS SUCCESS AND ENTIRE FAMILY.
SHOGHI
Letter of 25 January 1951
25 January 1951(54)
APPRECIATE SENTIMENTS BELOVED FRIENDS.
SHOGHI
Letter of 25 February 1951
25 February 1951
Dear Baha'i Brother,
Your letters of June 19th, June 22nd, July 18th, July 21st, July 26th, August 17th, August 29th, August 30th, September 6th, September 8th, September 27th (2 letters), October 3rd (2 letters), October 5th, October 17th, October 26th, October 30th (2 letters), October 31st, November 13th, November 24th (2 letters), December 10th, December 22nd, 1950, and January 2nd, January 25th and February 2nd, 20th, 1951, together with enclosures as well as photographs, have been received, and our beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer you on his behalf. (A postscript dated March 18th adds: "Your letters (two) dated March 8th have also been received with enclosures.")
He regrets that, due to pressure of work, he is not able to write more frequently, but feels that the cable communications between himself and your assembly attend to the essential work in between letters....
Regarding your question about the communication with the King, as mentioned in Minutes 292 and 344, he feels that both contemplated approaches should be dropped for the present. By undertaking such action we call attention to ourselves in a very conspicuous manner, and investigation of who the senders are of such petitions would only expose the weakness of our numbers and detract from the prestige which the Cause is slowly beginning to acquire in the eyes of the world.
He thanks you very much for the map, showing the British Baha'i community at the end of the Six Year Plan. He has placed it on a wall of the Mansion of Bahji, where visitors and believers can enjoy it. It certainly marks the scene of one of the most historic victories of the Faith.
In regard to the question of the African campaign, the Guardian is immensely pleased with the way your assembly and the special committee you have appointed, have seized this project and are vigorously prosecuting it. He admires the evidences of careful planning and staunch determination which all the data regarding this important campaign, which you have forwarded to him, bear witness to.
He was very happy to receive the Chinyanza pamphlets which you sent to him, and also likes very much the "Africa News" which the committee is getting out and which is so alive with plans and news.
He is also delighted to see that the Persian National Assembly is vigorously co-operating with your Assembly and facilitating settlement of some devoted Persian pioneer there who no doubt will be of great help to the work....
He feels that, although it is preferable that the three pioneers to each virgin country should be in one town or at least as near each other as possible, it should not be considered the essential point at this juncture.
The most important thing of all is to get the pioneers out there and established if possible in some self-supporting work. Once this has been done, the work within the country itself can be gradually organised and plans made to consolidate it in a more practical manner.
He used the word "tribes" loosely to mean the peoples of Africa and not necessarily individuals still living under tribal system.
The Guardian does not feel that it is necessary to specify any particular prayer to be said for the Africa work. The main thing is that the Baha'is should pray for its success.
He approves of your getting out the edition of the "New Era" which you now have in the press; but feels very strongly that any future editions should strictly conform to the 1937 American edition, in order to preserve uniformity in this very important Baha'i publication.
Regarding your question about military service, the Guardian sees no reason why the Baha'i in question should not bring a test case, and press the matter. It is now, since he has become a follower of Baha'u'llah, against his conscience to kill his fellow-men; and he should have the right to explain his position and ask to be exempted from combatant service. During the hearing of such cases the Baha'is should make it absolutely clear that we do not fear being placed in danger, and are not asking to be given a safe berth in hours of national crisis--quite the contrary--any dangerous service the Baha'is can render their fellow-men during the agonies of war, they should be anxious to accept.
The work that the British Baha'is are accomplishing is very dear to his heart; and he wishes your Assembly to constantly encourage the friends (as of course they are doing) to go on with all phases of their Baha'i work and maintain the tempo they achieved during the past few years. They have distinguished themselves so much that now their fellow Baha'is in other lands expect them to lead the way in new fields, and to continue being the pace setters for at least the British Empire, if not other countries as well! Success brings burdens; and the British Baha'is who were so miraculously successful at the last moment of their Six Year Plan, now find themselves in the sometimes difficult position of being a cynosure for all eyes.
He assures you, one and all, of his loving prayers for the work you are so faithfully carrying out on behalf of the believers in the British Isles....
P.S.--I wish to call your attention to certain things in "Principles of Baha'i Administration" which has just reached the Guardian; although the material is good, he feels that the complete lack of quotation marks is very misleading. His own words, the words of his various secretaries, even the Words of Baha'u'llah Himself, are all lumped together as one text. This is not only not reverent in the case of Baha'u'llah's Words, but misleading. Although the secretaries of the Guardian convey his thoughts and instructions and these messages are authoritative, their words are in no sense the same as his, their style certainly not the same, and their authority less, for they use their own terms and not his exact words in conveying his messages. He feels that in any future edition this fault should be remedied, any quotations from Baha'u'llah or the Master plainly attributed to them, and the words of the Guardian clearly differentiated from those of his secretaries.
[From the Guardian:]
Dear and valued co-workers,
The magnificent spirit of devotion and the initiative and resourcefulness demonstrated in recent months by a triumphant community, in its eagerness to launch, ahead of the appointed time, the enterprise destined to carry the fame of its members and establish its outposts as far afield as the African Continent, merit the highest praise. By their organising ability, by their zeal in enlisting the collaboration of their sister communities in the African, the American and Asiatic continents for the effective prosecution of this epoch-making enterprise; by the tenacity, sagacity and fidelity which they have displayed in the course of its opening phase; by their utter consecration and their complete reliance on the One Who watches over their destiny, they have set an example worthy of emulation by the members of Baha'i communities in both the East and the West.
The despatch of the first pioneer to Tanganyika, signalising the inauguration of the African campaign, following so closely upon the successful termination of the Six Year Plan, will be recognised by posterity as the initial move in an undertaking designed to supplement and enrich the record of signal collective services rendered by the members of this community within the confines and throughout the length and breadth of its homeland. On it, however great the support it will receive from its sister communities in the days to come, will devolve the chief responsibility of guiding the destinies, of supplying the motive power, and of contributing to the resources of a crusade which, for the first time in Baha'i history, involves the collaboration, and affects the fortunes, of no less than four National Assemblies, in both Hemispheres and within four continents of the globe.
On the success of this enterprise, unprecedented in its scope, unique in its character and immense in its spiritual potentialities, must depend the initiation, at a later period in the Formative Age of the Faith, of undertakings embracing within their range all National Assemblies functioning throughout the Baha'i World, undertakings constituting in themselves a prelude to the launching of world-wide enterprises destined to be embarked upon, in future epochs of that same Age, by the Universal House of Justice, that will symbolise the unity and coordinate and unify the activities of these National Assemblies.
Indeed the birth of this African enterprise, in the opening decade of the second Baha'i century, coinciding as it does with the formation of the International Baha'i Council, should be acclaimed as an event of peculiar significance in the evolution of our beloved Faith. Both events will, no doubt, be hailed by posterity as simultaneous and compelling evidences of the irresistible unfoldment of a divinely appointed Administrative Order and of the development, on an international scale, of its subsidiary agencies, heralding the establishment of the Supreme Legislative Body designed to crown the Administrative Edifice now being laboriously erected by the privileged builders of a Divine Order, whose features have been delineated by the Centre of the Covenant in His Will and Testament, whose fundamental laws have been revealed by the Founder of our Faith in His Kitab-i-Aqdas, and Whose advent has been foreshadowed by the Herald of the Baha'i Dispensation in the Bayan, His most weighty Book.
To be singled out as the chief agency in the prosecution of a task of such dimensions, such significance, and the harbinger of events so glorious, is indeed at once an inestimable blessing and a staggering responsibility with which the British Baha'i community, emerging triumphantly and in rapid succession from the ordeal of a world war and the struggles involved in the prosecution of an historic Plan, has been honoured at so critical and challenging an hour in the fortunes of mankind.
To labour assiduously for the despatch, in the coming year marking the official opening of the Two Year Plan, of pioneers to the chosen Territories of the African Continent; to ensure that its three sister National Assemblies will steadily reinforce its work through financial assistance as well as through the increase in the number of pioneers; to expedite the translation, publication and dissemination of Baha'i literature in the three selected languages throughout these Territories; to enlarge the scope of the contacts established with representatives of the African peoples and with institutions designed to foster their interests; to cultivate cordial relations with, and secure the goodwill and support of, the civil authorities in the goal countries where the pioneers will reside; to maintain steady correspondence with, fan the zeal, seek the counsel and secure the assistance of the budding and scattered communities in the North, the South and the Heart of that vast, that promising and slowly awakening continent; to prepare for the eventual convocation, under its own auspices and following the example set, and the procedure adopted, by its sister American Assembly on the European Continent, of the First African Teaching Conference, representative of both the white and black races, constituting an epoch-making landmark in the evolution of the Faith among the African races and possibly synchronising with the centenary celebrations of the birth of Baha'u'llah's Mission, and adding another victor's crown to the laurels already won by the British followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah in their own homeland--these stand out as the paramount and inescapable duties confronting the British National Spiritual Assembly as it stands on the threshold of a new and glorious epoch in British Baha'i history.
Though the prospect of this new venture is indeed enthralling, though it demands careful planning, the allocation of substantial sums for its prosecution, and the exertion of strenuous efforts for its systematic development, the prizes so laboriously won at home must under no circumstances be jeopardised. The twofold obligation of preserving the status of the newly-fledged Assemblies in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and of propagating the Faith among the people dwelling in the British Isles through active teaching and the wide circulation of Baha'i literature must be faithfully discharged. The necessary foundation for the proclamation of the Faith, at a later stage in the development of the British Baha'i community, amidst the British people and in the very heart of the British Empire must be carefully laid. Whatever measures will facilitate the future recognition of the Faith by the civil authorities in the localities where its followers reside, and eventually by the central government in Westminster, must, within the means at their disposal, and however tentatively, be adopted.
Then and only then will this community, carrying out faithfully the twofold duty incumbent upon it, both at home and abroad, be vouchsafed by Baha'u'llah the full measure of His grace which will enable it to traverse, speedily and successfully, the present stage in its evolution, and acquire still greater potentialities for the revelation of a still brighter aspect of its mission designed to illuminate with the light of Divine Guidance and in the course of the Formative and Golden Ages of the Faith all the Dependencies of the British Crown, and erect the administrative structure within these Territories, of an Order, incomparably mightier and more enduring than any which that Crown has ever established.
Shoghi
Letter of 23 April 1951
23 April 1951
DEEPEST APPRECIATION GREETINGS LOVING REMEMBRANCE SHRINES DELIGHTED SUCCESS.
SHOGHI
Letter of 25 April 1951 (Convention)
25 April 1951 (Convention)
REJOICE THANKFUL PROUD STERLING QUALITIES FIDELITY TENACITY INTREPIDITY BRITISH FOLLOWERS FAITH BAHA'U'LLAH CONSPICUOUSLY DEMONSTRATED COURSE INTERVAL SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION SIX YEAR FORMAL INAUGURATION TWO YEAR PLAN. HEARTILY CONGRATULATE DELEGATES ASSEMBLED OCCASION HISTORIC NUMERICALLY ENLARGED EPOCH MAKING CONVENTION. ONE YEAR RESPITE REGARDED BREATHING SPELL DESIGNED ENABLE TOILING TRIUMPHANT VALOROUS HIGH MINDED COMMUNITY RECRUIT FORCES WITNESSED UNEXPECTED DISPLAY VIGOROUS ACTIVITY RESULTING FIRST VICTORIES AFRICAN FIELD PRESERVATION LABORIOUSLY ESTABLISHED ASSEMBLIES LENGTH BREADTH BRITISH ISLES. TWO YEAR PLAN NOW OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED DEMANDS CONTINUOUS UNSTINTED SYSTEMATIC SUPPORT NATIONAL ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES ALL LOCAL ASSEMBLIES RANK FILE ENTIRE COMMUNITY. AUSPICIOUS RAYS GOD'S DAWNING REVELATION WHICH FIRST STRUCK CORNER VAST DARK SPIRITUALLY DECADENT CONTINENT COURSE BAHA'U'LLAH'S MINISTRY WHICH WARMED ILLUMINATED ITS NORTHERN SOUTHERN FRINGES CONCLUDING YEARS HEROIC AGE FAITH MUST NOW PENETRATE ITS HEART BRIGHTEN ITS JUNGLE FASTNESSES ENVELOP IT WITH SPLENDOUR THEIR RADIANCE COURSE PRESENT SUCCEEDING EPOCHS FORMATIVE AGE BAHA'I DISPENSATION. CONFIDENT BRITISH BAHA'I COMMUNITY WILL ARISE BEFITTINGLY MEET CHALLENGE NOW CONFRONTING IT ACHIEVE THREEFOLD PURPOSE PLAN. PRAYING ENERGETIC COLLABORATION PROSECUTORS 'ABDU'L-BAHA'S DIVINE PLAN WITH COMMUNITY BELIEVERS BELONGING NATION WHOSE DESTINY BEEN LINKED FORTUNES WORLD'S BACKWARD RACES REINFORCED ASSISTANCE SISTER COMMUNITY CRADLE FAITH NATIONAL ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES LEADING COMMUNITY AFRICAN CONTINENT MAY ENSURE SUCCESS CRUSADE CONSTITUTING SPIRITUAL LANDMARK PROCESS AWAKENING AFRICAN PEOPLES MARKING OPENING GLORIOUS CHAPTER EVOLUTION WORLD FAITH BAHA'U'LLAH SIGNALISING INITIAL PHASE UNFOLDMENT MISSION COMMUNITY HIS FOLLOWERS BRITISH ISLES MIDST DOMINIONS COLONIES PROTECTORATES BRITISH CROWN. MAY PROJECTED CENTENARY BIRTH PROPHETIC MISSION BAHA'U'LLAH BEFITTINGLY CELEBRATED CONVOCATION FIRST ALL AFRICAN TEACHING CONFERENCE REPRESENTATIVE BLACK WHITE RACES EMBRACING SEVENTEEN AFRICAN TERRITORIES NOW INCLUDED PALE FAITH. ARRANGING TRANSMISSION ONE THOUSAND POUNDS CONTRIBUTION FURTHERANCE GLORIOUS OBJECTIVE.
SHOGHI
Letter of 2 May 1951
2 May 1951
DEEPLY APPRECIATE GREETINGS HIGH RESOLVE ATTENDANTS CONVENTION DELIGHTED SUCCESS SESSIONS PRAYING SIGNAL VICTORIES.
SHOGHI
Letter of 4 May 1951
4 May 1951
OWING RECENT INSTRUCTIONS PERSIAN EGYPTIAN ASSEMBLIES TO DESPATCH PIONEERS FIVE ADDITIONAL AFRICAN TERRITORIES ADVISE UNDERTAKE TRANSLATION SMALL PAMPHLETS INTO ACOLI ADANWE EWE FANTA MENDE YORUBA.
SHOGHI
Letter of 5 May 1951
5 May 1951
ADD SOMALI TO LANGUAGES ALREADY CABLED.
SHOGHI
Letter of 22 June 1951
22 June 1951
NEWLY LAUNCHED HIGHLY MOMENTOUS AFRICAN CAMPAIGN CHIEF AUXILIARY MANIFOLD AGENCIES OPERATING FURTHERANCE 'ABDU'L-BAHA'S PLAN AMERICAN EUROPEAN CONTINENTS IRRESISTIBLY UNFOLDING GATHERING MOMENTUM THROUGH ADDED PARTICIPATION INDIAN BAHA'I COMMUNITY ASSIGNMENT SPECIFIC SUPPLEMENTARY FUNCTIONS PERSIAN EGYPTIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES CONTEMPLATED TRANSLATION BAHA'I LITERATURE ADDITIONAL AFRICAN LANGUAGES MULTIPLICATION TERRITORIES NORTHERN EASTERN WESTERN FRINGES VAST AWAKENING CONTINENT. BRIEF SPAN TWO YEARS DESTINED WITNESS FIRST FRUITS HISTORIC CONTINENT-WIDE CRUSADE WILL ERELONG TERMINATE. VALOROUS BRITISH BAHA'I COMMUNITY CENTRAL PIVOT MACHINERY NOW SET MOTION CHIEF AGENCY PROSECUTION MIGHTY DIVINELY PROPELLED ENTERPRISE MUST AWARE URGENCY TASK ACT SPEEDILY RESOLUTELY DESPATCH WITHOUT DELAY VOLUNTEERS, SETTLE PIONEERS DISSEMINATE LITERATURE INITIATE TEACHING ACTIVITIES ESTABLISH FRUITFUL CONTACTS ENSURE STEADY ENROLMENT FRESH RECRUITS AMONGST TRIBES RACES FARFLUNG VIRGIN TERRITORIES. TRANSMITTING ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTION THOUSAND POUNDS ENSURE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION COLOSSAL SACRED TASK ENABLING WELL TRIED FOLLOWERS FAITH BAHA'U'LLAH BRITISH ISLES WRITE WORTHILY FIRST PAGE HISTORY MEMORABLE UNDERTAKING CONSTITUTING OPENING PHASE THEIR GLORIOUS SPIRITUAL MISSION OVERSEAS.
SHOGHI
Letter of 22 June 1951
22 June 1951(55)
ASSURE DEPARTED PIONEERS FERVENT LOVING PRAYERS SURROUNDING THEM.
SHOGHI
Letter of 4 July 1951
4 July 1951
WORK NEWLY ASSIGNED EGYPT INDIA PERSIA SUPPLEMENTARY ANY ASSISTANCE EXTENDED THEM YOUR ASSEMBLY DEEPLY APPRECIATED. TWO FUNDS ESTABLISHED WORLD CENTRE SETTLEMENT BANANI NA_KH_JAVANI LEFT DISCRETION YOUR ASSEMBLY.
SHOGHI
Letter of 15 July 1951
15 July 1951
APPROVE IBO OR DAGBANE INSTEAD OF FANTA.
SHOGHI
Letter of 20 July 1951
20 July 1951
ASSURE SABRIS LOVING FERVENT PRAYERS ACCOMPANYING THEM. GRIEVE PASSING PRESTON ASSURE WIFE LOVING PRAYERS APPROVE REINFORCE KENYA.
SHOGHI
Letter of 21 August 1951
21 August 1951(56)
OVERJOYED INITIAL VICTORY LOVE.
SHOGHI
Letter of 26 August 1951
26 August 1951
CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS RIDVAN. TEACHING CONFERENCE MAY BE HELD ANY TIME BETWEEN JANUARY AND MARCH 1953 SUBSTITUTE ANOTHER LANGUAGE FOR SOMALI.
SHOGHI
Letter of 2 September 1951
2 September 1951
ASSURE ATTENDANTS SCHOOL ABIDING APPRECIATION NOBLE RESOLVE FERVENT PRAYERS.
SHOGHI
Letter of 19 September 1951
19 September 1951(57)
Dear Baha'i Brother,
Your letter of August 27th has been received, and the beloved Guardian is sending you herein his receipt for the contribution of the British Baha'is to the Shrine. He noted with interest and appreciation that the Bank raised no objections to the transfer of this sum for such a purpose, and feels this indicates the slowly growing recognition of the Faith's nature and importance. Your own ever devoted services to the Cause are greatly appreciated by him, you may be sure....
[From the Guardian:]
I gratefully acknowledge the receipt of the sum of three hundred pounds from the Baha'is of the British Isles, to be expended for the construction of the Shrine of the Bab on Mt. Carmel.
Shoghi
Letter of 16 October 1951
16 October 1951
Dear Baha'i Brother,
Your letters dated March 26th (two); April 4th (three), 11th, 17th, 8th, 7th and 24th; May 1st, 4th, 12th and 24th; June 1st, 4th, 19th (two), 12th, 23rd and 27th; July 4th, 6th, 21st (two), 25th and 31st; August 8th, 9th and 15th; September 15th, 18th and 19th; have all been received, as well as their enclosures, and the photographs sent and material under separate cover, and the beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer you on his behalf.
It will no doubt make you happy to hear that the Guardian has really had a little rest this summer, much needed after the tremendous strain of last year's worries and burdens. He can now turn to his important N.S.A. letters somewhat refreshed.
To take up certain matters raised in your letters:
There are two Funds, that of the Shrine of the Bab and the International Fund; but at present it is more important for the friends to concentrate on completing the work in progress on the Shrine, which, thanks to the response of the believers from all over the world, is going forward uninterruptedly, in spite of the very difficult situation in the Holy Land which makes all kinds of building work frightfully complicated.
The Guardian would very much like to receive five copies of every publication brought out in England for the Baha'i libraries in Haifa and at Bahji and in Acre. He thanks you for the diaries you sent....
For your information the Guardian does not want any believers to migrate at present to this country. It will not meet with his approval under any circumstances. The local problems, with a small group of Covenant-Breakers more or less active in stirring up trouble; the efforts, at present successful, which he is making to establish the most cordial relations with the Government; the upbuilding of the international institutions of the Faith; the consolidation of the International Baha'i Council--all require that no complications arise and no further strain be added to the burden of work at the World Centre of the Faith.
Now we come to the part of your activities nearest to his heart at present--Africa Campaign. By all means any translation at present into Somali should be given up, as the advice of experts prove it both unnecessary and very expensive.