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Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland Compiled by Research Department of the Universal House of Justice.
Published in Baha'i Studies Review 4:1
The convocation of the epoch-making Convention in the city of Florence, coinciding with the climax of the festivities commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Bahá'u'lláh's Mission, is an event which posterity will recognize as a landmark of the utmost significance in the second Epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation. This historic gathering culminated in the erection of yet another pillar designed to contribute its share to the establishment of the Supreme Legislative Body of the Administrative Order of the Faith. It may be rightly acclaimed as the fairest fruit of the great European enterprise launched in pursuance of the second Seven Year Plan formulated by the American Bahá'í community for the purpose of carrying a stage further the provisions of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Divine Plan for the systematic propagation of His Father's Faith. It has set in motion forces which, in the course of a few years, will hasten the emergence of two independent National Spiritual Assemblies, one in the capital city of the peace-loving, high- minded, firmly-knit Swiss nation, and the other within the heart and stronghold of the leading, the most ancient and powerful Church of Christendom, and the seat of the government of a country whose people, by virtue of their qualities of mind and heart, may well rank as one of the most distinguished on the European continent. It has provided, through the formation of the twelfth National Assembly in the Bahá'í world, yet another instrument that will, no doubt, lend a great impetus, despite its having been so recently fashioned, to the progress of a world Crusade, destined to exert so great an influence on the immediate destinies of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. (19 June 1953, appended in the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi to a letter written on his behalf to the National Spiritual Assembly of Italy and Switzerland)
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