Letters from the Guardian to Australia and New Zealand Part 5

March 18th, 1937

Dear Miss Brooks,

On behalf of the Guardian I acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your letter of the 17th February with the enclosed report of the Sydney local a.s.sembly, and wish to express his gratification at the news of the progress which that community is making in the teaching work. He has noted with deep satisfaction that two new names have been added to their members.h.i.+p roll, and hopes that this step will mark the beginning of a new era of teaching expansion throughout that center. He wishes you to kindly congratulate the Sydney a.s.sembly for this splendid success which their teaching efforts have won, and to urge them to continue in their endeavours for the attraction and confirmation of New Souls. May the Beloved aid, sustain and ever bless them in His service.

The Guardian is delighted to learn that the necessary arrangements for the holding of your next Annual Convention have been completed, and while he deplores the fact that owing to the long distances that separate the centers full attendance at this national gathering would not be feasible, he nevertheless hopes that it will be a most successful meeting, and will be marked all through by a perfect spirit of unity and fellows.h.i.+p. He wishes you to a.s.sure the delegates of his prayers for the success of their deliberations, and to convey to them his warmest greetings and best wishes for a happy Ridvan.

Yours ever in His Service, H. Rabbani.

P.S. Shoghi Effendi wishes me to express his thanks for the four reproductions of the Adelaide a.s.sembly registration form and trust which you had enclosed in your letter, one of which he has ordered to be placed in Baha'u'llah's Mansion at Bahji, and another one he wishes to incorporate in the ma.n.u.script of the next "Baha'i World" (vol. VII).

H.R.

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and valued co-worker:

I am truly gratified and delighted to receive so many evidences of the zeal, the loyalty and the devotion with which the believers in Australia and New-Zealand are extending the range of their historic activities. I feel deeply grateful to them. I will most a.s.suredly pray for them that the Beloved may bless their high endeavours and aid them to establish His Cause and proclaim far and wide its verities and teachings.

Shoghi.

LETTER OF AUGUST 29TH, 1937

August 29th, 1937

Beloved Baha'i Sister,

Your welcome communication of June 30 written on behalf of the N.S.A., as well as the accompanying papers and reports have all been received, and their contents read with keenest interest and appreciation by our beloved Guardian.

How rejoiced he feels to witness the increasing evidences of the growing progress of the community of the Australian and New-Zealand believers. The considerable work that they have accomplished during the last few years, in both the teaching and the administrative fields, could not indeed have been carried out without the wise and effective leaders.h.i.+p of your N.S.A.

who, ever since its inception, has been functioning with a loyalty and efficiency that are truly remarkable.

The success of this year's Convention, as evidenced by the report of the proceedings you had sent, marks a further step in the process of steady consolidation through which the N.S.A. is pa.s.sing, and indicates how strong are the loyalty and attachment which it has awakened among the body of the believers throughout Australia and New-Zealand.

It is the Guardian's fervent hope that this confidence which your a.s.sembly has inspired will be further strengthened during the course of this year, and that this in turn will deepen in the members the sense of the heavy responsibility they have to shoulder for the extension and consolidation of Baha'i work throughout that continent.

Now as regards your a.s.sembly's question concerning a tie vote; as the point raised is a secondary matter it is left to the discretion of your N.S.A.

In the case of voting for less than nine individuals; it is not compulsory that a ballot paper should contain necessarily nine votes. The individual voter may record less than nine names, if he chooses to do so.

With renewed greetings and thanks from the Guardian to you and your fellow-members in the N.S.A.,

Yours ever in His Service, H. Rabbani.

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and valued co-worker:

I am delighted with the manifold evidences of the progress achieved through the concerted efforts of the Australian and the New-Zealand believers under the able direction of their elected national representatives. I feel proud of their accomplishments, highly approve of their plans and projected enterprises, feel grateful for the spirit that animates them, and cherish bright hopes for the extension of their activities. May the Beloved guide their steps, cheer their hearts and enable them to diffuse far and wide the teachings and spirit of His Cause.

Gratefully and affectionately, Shoghi.

LETTER OF AUGUST 30TH, 1937

August 30th, 1937

Dear Miss Brooks,

Your letter of the 17th July enclosing Miss Ethel Dawe's communication requesting permission to visit the Holy Land has been duly received by our beloved Guardian, and he has directed me to inform you that, at your suggestion, he has cabled Miss Dawe directly to London, extending to her a hearty welcome to visit the Holy Shrines in the next fall.

He hopes that in the meantime nothing will happen to alter or upset her plans, and that she will be given the privilege and joy of undertaking this much-desired pilgrimage to Haifa.

Hoping this will find you and all the Adelaide friends in the best of health, and with loving greetings to you and to them,

Yours ever in the Cause, H. Rabbani.

[From the Guardian:]

Wis.h.i.+ng you success from all my heart, and a.s.suring you of my continued prayers for the realisation of your highest hopes,

Your true brother, Shoghi.

LETTER OF JANUARY 31ST, 1938

January 31st, 1938

Dear Miss Brooks,

The Guardian wishes me to express his loving thanks for your letter of the third instant, enclosing the half-yearly reports of the Perth and Auckland Spiritual a.s.semblies, all of which he has been delighted to read.

He wishes you to write the Auckland a.s.sembly a.s.suring them of his approval of the request they have made on behalf of Miss Kitty Carpenter for permission to visit Haifa. He has every hope that through this pilgrimage she will be greatly refreshed and strengthened spiritually, and will upon her return home impart to the friends in New-Zealand some measure of the inspiration she will gain through close contact with the Holy Shrines.

Before closing the Guardian also wishes me to express the hope that your N.S.A.'s plan of holding a meeting in Melbourne during the course of this year may be realized, and that the occasion may serve to lend a fresh impetus to the growth of the Cause in that city. He is fervently praying for the success of your a.s.sembly's efforts in this connection.