Inform National Assemblies East and West that the Bahá'í World Crusade, matchless in its vastness, unsurpassed in its potentialities in the spiritual annals of mankind, announced on the eve of the Holy Year and formally launched during the climax of the festivities commemorating the centenary of the birth of the Mission of the Founder of the Faith, is forging ahead and gathering momentum in both its territorial and institutional aspects in every continent of the globe and the chief islands of the Pacific, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean and North Seas.
The number of sovereign States and dependencies within the orbit of a divinely propelled Order now totals two hundred five. No less than seventy-seven territories have been won over by the Knights of Bahá'u'lláh during a little over half a year, representing two thirds of the total number of virgin areas exclusive of Soviet-controlled Republics and satellites which must needs be opened in the course of the whole decade. Every single territory, whether island or situated on a continent, with the exception of the above-mentioned Republics and satellites has been definitely assigned.
Out of a total of eleven, eight Funds have been inaugurated in the course of the same year, aggregating approximately two hundred thousand dollars designed to pave the way for the acquisition of sites for the future Mashriqu'l-Adhkars on Carmel and in Canada, Panama, Italy, Sweden, Iraq, Australia and India.
The hour is propitious for all National Assemblies, particularly the United States, the British and the Egyptian, to participate befittingly in the opening of the three remaining Funds ere the first year of the Ten Year Plan draws to a close, insuring thereby the early purchase of sites for the future Mashriqu'l-Adhkars in Cairo, Kampala and Johannesburg. Contributing three thousand pounds as my initial donation to this three-fold, meritorious purpose.
Preliminary measures have been adopted by the German National Spiritual Assembly and projects have been initiated in Tihrán calculated to hasten the construction of the third and fourth &Mashriqu'l-Adhkars of the Bahá'í world in the heart of the European and Asiatic continents.
Appeal to individual believers to reinforce to whatever extent possible the contributions of the Bahá'í national bodies called upon at this hour to unitedly lend an impetus to the unfoldment of the opening phase of the Ten Year Plan whose consummation will, God willing, insure the triumphant conclusion of the initial epoch in the evolution of the grand Design conceived by the Center of the Covenant for the systematic propagation of His Father's Faith. Advise forward all contributions, whether individual or collective, to the Egyptian, British or United States National Assemblies which are primarily invested with responsibility for the eventual erection of the Bahá'í Houses of Worship in the north, the heart, and the south of the African continent.
--Shoghi
[Cablegram, December 7, 1953]