ard off the
rage which had threatened with immediate ruin one of the most precious and
noblest of Baha'i institutions. Nothing short of the whole-hearted
assistance, whether moral or financial which the American believers,
individually and collectively, were moved to extend on several occasions
to the needy and harassed among their brethren in Persia could have saved
these hapless victims of the consequences of the calamities that had
visited them in the years following 'Abdu'l-Baha's ascension. It was the
publicity which the efforts of their American brethren had created, the
protests they were led to make, the appeals and petitions they had
submitted, which mitigated these sufferings and curbed the violence of the
worst and most tyrannical opponents of the Faith in that land. Who else,
if not one of their most distinguished representatives, has risen to force
upon the attention of the highest Tribunal the world has yet seen the
grievances which a Faith, robbed of one of its holiest sanctuaries, had
suffered at the hand of the usurper? Who else has succeeded in securing,
through patient and persistent effort, those written affirmations which
proclaim the justice of a persecuted cause and tacitly recognize its right
to an independent religious status? "The Commission," is the resolution
passed by the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations,
"recommends that the Council should ask the British Government to make
representations to the Iraqi Government with a view to the immediate
redress of the denial of justice from which the petitioners (the Baha'i
Spiritual Assembly of Ba_gh_dad) have suffered." Has any one else except
an American believer been led to obtain from royalty such remarkable and
repeated testimonies to the regenerating power of the Faith of God, such
striking references to the universality of its teachings and the sublimity
of its mission. "The Baha'i teaching," such is the Queen's written
testimony, "brings peace and understanding. It is like a wide embrace
gathering together all those who have long searched for words of hope. It
accepts all great Prophets gone before, it destroys no other creeds and
leaves all doors open. Saddened by the continual strife amongst believers
of many confessions and wearied of their intolerance towards each other, I
discovered in the Baha'i teaching the real spirit of Christ so often
denied and misunderstood: Unity instead of strife, Hope instead of
condemnation,