Bahá’í Administration

I have read with keen interest all the enclosures regarding the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, have shared the up-to-date news they contained with the friends throughout the East, and note with particular pleasure the completion of the Basement Section, with its spacious Foundation Hall ready for the holding of meetings and the gatherings of friends. Though the prospect of the immediate resumption 47 of building activity does not seem bright at present, yet I hope and pray that these difficulties will soon disappear, and the work of this unique Edifice, stimulated and advanced in time by the zeal and self-sacrifice of the friends the world over, will soon attain its glorious consummation. I beg to enclose my humble contribution of 19 pounds, as my share of the numerous donations that have reached the Temple Treasury in the past year.

Pray convey to the members of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár Committee the highest sense of my appreciation for their devoted and strenuous labors, and my constant prayers for the success of the task which they have set themselves to accomplish.

With regard to the situation in Persia, and the condition of the friends in that land, I have requested the Ṭihrán Spiritual Assembly to send me immediately an authoritative and full report of the exact situation, whereupon I shall duly inform you of the exact steps to be taken to insure the well-being and safety of the tried believers in Persia….

The holding of State Congresses, Amity Conventions, and other universal associations of the friends in America, will naturally fall within the province of the National Spiritual Assembly, which will direct and supervise the work of them all by the aid of special committees, each constituted for a specific purpose. The matter of receiving Orientals is left entirely in the hands of the National Spiritual Assembly, whose special committee for this purpose will have to investigate all the questions arising in this connection in future. Please convey to the members of the newly constituted Library Committee my deep appreciation of their labors in this important field of service, and assure them of my prayers for their success.

Touching the point raised in the Secretary’s letter regarding the nature and scope of the Universal Court of Arbitration, this and other similar matters will have to be explained and elucidated by the Universal House of Justice, to which, according to the Master’s explicit instructions, all important and fundamental questions must be referred. At present the exact implication and full significance of the provisions of the Master’s Will are as yet imperfectly understood, and time will serve to reveal the wisdom and the far-reaching effects of His words. 48

I am enclosing on a separate sheet the full authoritative code, widely adopted by contemporary Orientalists throughout the world, which will serve as a basis for the transliteration of Bahá’í terms and Oriental names. 1

Remembering you all in my hours of visit and prayer at the Three Holy Shrines, and wishing you success from all my heart,