forwarded during my days of
retirement and rest, have proved an added source of thankfulness, of joy
and strength to me. They have clearly revealed by their spirit, as well as
by the nature and variety of their contents, the sustained devotion, the
unabated confidence, and the increasing vigor and efficiency with which
you are initiating, coordinating, and consolidating the manifold
activities of the Cause in North America.

International Secretariat

The range and character of the problems confronting you, as revealed by
the careful perusal of the minutes of your meetings, the steady increase
in the number and effectiveness of vigorously functioning Centers in
Central and Northern Europe, and the growing significance and complexity
of the work that has to be necessarily conducted from the Holy Land, have
all served to strengthen the feeling of absolute necessity for the
formation in Haifa of some sort of an International Baha'i Secretariat,
which both in an advisory and executive capacity will have to aid and
assist me in my vast and exacting labors. I have anxiously considered this
important matter in all its bearings during the past few months, and have
accordingly requested three well-informed, capable representatives from
America, Europe and the East to visit the Holy Land this fall, that we may
lay down the foundation of this vitally needed institution. We shall take
counsel together and decide, not only upon the measures that have to be
promptly undertaken to meet the pressing demands of the present hour, but
upon the wider issues that on one hand will strengthen the ties that
should bind the International Center of the Cause with the world at large,
and on the other provide for the preliminary steps that will eventually
lead to the proper establishment of the First International House of
Justice.

It is my earnest hope and prayer that this exchange of thought and close
cooperation in the work that has henceforth to be internationally and
vigorously conducted, will enable me to participate more minutely and
effectively in the labors of the various administrative departments of
your Assembly, and thus reinforce the splendid efforts you are exerting
for the extension of its influence and the widening of its scope.

Plan of Unified Action

From the report of the National Treasurer, setting forth the account of
the progress of the contributions of the American believers for the
support of the Pla