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USBN #145 July 1941 p2-4
It is in view of this constant expansion and increasing complexity of the inter-continental activities of the Faith, for which your Assembly has assumed a primary responsibility, that the Guardian has lately re-emphasized the necessity of avoiding over-centralization in the conduct of the affairs of the Cause, thereby relieving your Assembly of an unmanageable amount of detail and routine work, which would interfere with its clear and paramount duty of maintaining a thorough and vigilant supervision over the work of the Cause as a whole. Excessive decentralization, on the other hand, would tend to nullify the principle which places ultimate authority and responsibility in the hands of the National Spiritual Assembly. His recent instruction regarding the relationship of the Regional Teaching Committees to the National Teaching Committee safeguards this principle which lies at the very basis of the Administrative Order. The Regional Committees, although appointed by the N.S.A. should, unlike all other committees, be viewed as special adjuncts created specifically for the purpose of helping directly the National Teaching Committee in its all-important task of stimulating the teaching activities of the Faith in North America. In a sense they are subcommittees of the National Teaching Committee, to whom their reports and all details of the national teaching activity should be constantly and directly referred.
At the present time, in view of the emphasis placed by the Guardian on the teaching phase of the Seven Year Plan, the National Teaching and Inter-America committees acquire great importance and assume added responsibility, and should be supported and encouraged by both the N.S.A. as well as the rank and file of the believers . The resources of the entire community and of the National Fund should be consecrated to this supreme and sacred purpose. The importance acquired by these two committees, however, does not make of them independent bodies , or give them the right to disregard the advice and the general directions of the N.S.A. Otherwise a conflict of authority would ensue within the administration, introducing an evil as pernicious as the tendency to over-centralize the affairs of the Cause in the hands of an over-burdened N.S.A. , depriving it thereby of the vision and the necessary leisure required to ponder the policies, the problems and enterprises which the growth of the Administrative Order engenders .
The Guardian is very pleased to learn of the success that has attended the sessions at Atlanta and the removal of the disagreement within the community of that city and the work achieved by the regional conference and the public meeting open to both races . A special effort, he feels. should now be made to lay a foundation of unity between the white and colored Baha'is and weld the groups into communities capable of forming Assemblies representative of both races.
The action taken by your Assembly in connection with rural areas, such as township and county, as different from towns and cities, meets with his approval. He hopes that a special effort will be made to increase the number of Assemblies in these rural areas. This, he believes, is one of the major functions and duties of the National Teaching Committee this year.
The fifty photographs showing the recent progress in Temple construction have been safely received and he has already distributed them among the many pilgrims that came this year from Persia, 'Iraq, Syria and Egypt. He would appreciate another fifty copies of the Temple photograph as soon as sufficient faces are completed to represent a finished and unobstructed view of the entire edifice.
The material sent to him regarding the legal action taken against the New History Society, as well as copies of their monthly publication, have been received and the Guardian feels that Ahmad Sohrab is increasingly revealing his latent opposition to the spirit as well as the letter of the Master's Will and Testament. His references to excommunication flatly contradict the Master's own actions and attitude, of which he is personally fully aware, and are irreconcilable with some of the most emphatic and unmistakable injunctions of 'Abdu’l-Baha in His Will and Testament. His increasingly bold criticisms of the action taken by the Guardian amounts to a repudiation of the authority of the Guardianship, and is thus an open and flagrant violation of the Will establishing that authority. In fact the more he writes and the more he gives vent to his true feelings, and discloses his real attitude to what 'Abdu'l-Baha has regarded as absolutely essential to the unity, the integrity and protection of the Faith, the more will he clearly demonstrate his disloyalty to the Master whom he professes to uphold and defend. He is no doubt the most subtle, resourceful and indefatigable enemy the Faith has had in America, and the retribution he will in the end suffer will be correspondingly grievous and devastating. Every effort should be made by your Assembly to protect the new believers from the poison which he is trying to instill into their minds and souls, and to reinforce their confidence in his ultimate downfall and complete obliteration.
Regarding the Master's public talks, copies of which you have sent under separate cover, the Guardian approves of their being made available to the friends as excerpts in " World Order" magazine.
Will you kindly assure Miss Kruka that the Guardian has received a few copies of the Finnish version of " Baha'u'llah and the New Era," and wishes her to arrange to have more sent to him for distribution. He would appreciate it if Mrs. Lynch could arrange to send through you a few copies of the Polish version recently published, that the Guardian may place them in the various libraries he has established in the Holy Land.
Regarding the design for the door of the Temple , the Guardian approves your decision not to proceed with any plan for these doors before the exterior ornamentation is completed. Nor should the question of metal grilles for some of the windows be considered at present. Care should be exercised lest the Trustees be led to enter into any new subsidiary contracts in the course of this year, as this would entail a diminution of the funds that should now be devoted to the vital teaching work to be carried out throughout the Americas.
Every endeavor should be made in the course of the year by the National Assembly, the National Teaching and Inter-America committees, as well as the pioneers in various fields , and indeed by each and every individual believer, to extend the scope and consolidate the basis of the teaching campaigns initiated throughout the WesternHemisphere. Any progress achieved in this most vital field at so critical a stage in the secular affairs of the American nations, will vitally affect the spiritual destinies of these republics, though the inter-action of the forces at work in both fields , spiritual and temporal, may not be apparent at the present time. Baha’u’llah, the Guardian firmly believes, is releasing through this inter-continental campaign, at a time when decisions vital to the interests of the Western Hemisphere are being taken, forces which, as they reveal their potentialities, will increasingly assist in shaping that World Order which the American peoples of the New World are being called upon to proclaim and establish.
With the assurance of the Guardian's continued prayers for the success of your historic services.
Yours in His Service,
H . RABBANI
Haifa, Palestine, May 25 , 1941
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