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1930-08-30 response to individual re History Society
USBN #46 - November 1930 - page 9
Letter from the Guardian, Through His Secretary, to a Believer of Yonkers, N.Y.
"A year ago, Mrs. Chanler wrote Shoghi Effendi of her plan to work
independently of the Assembly. In answer he expressed his disapproval in a most
unquestionable term. In the letters and cables that Mrs. Chanler wrote subsequent
to that, Shoghi Effendi expressed the same view again. He knew that for a body to
defy the Assembly is contrary to the best interests of the Cause; that not only
will conflict arise but it will react unfavorably in other parts of the world.
"Some persons in the (United) States feel that the History Society was badly
represented to Shoghi Effendi. The source of all our information is the writings
of Ahmad, and the publications of that group. In all his circular letters he
harped on the note of freedom, and denounced the red tape that characterizes
organizations. Freedom, which Ahmad reiterates...is not a bad thing if considered
in view of the interpretation that Baha'u'llah gives in the Aqdas. (See quotation
No. 1, above - Editor). The freedom that He commends is a freedom which is a fruit
and result of law and proper administration. The other kind of freedom which is in
defiance of law He considers to be animal, and far from being of any good to man.
He says, "True freedom is in obedience to My law.'
"No one wrote to Shoghi Effendi against the History Society; it is Ahmad's
reports that caused Shoghi Effendi's mistrust. This literature has not had this
effect only on Shoghi Effendi but also on the friends of Australia and New
Zealand. In the last two weeks we have had two letters from prominent and firm
Baha'is of New Zealand and Australia who referred to the History Society and its
literature with greatest disapprobation, and with great astonishment that nothing
is being done.
"The Cause is an international institution. Every act done in one Center
will have some reaction in some other locality. What if the spirit that Ahmad
preaches should be practised in its full? The whole Cause will as a result be
destroyed."
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