inal Message that Baha'u'llah had sent to her grand-mother, Queen
Victoria, in London. She asked the writer about the progress of the Baha'i
Movement, especially in the Balkan countries... She spoke too of several
Baha'i books, the depths of "Iqan," and especially of "Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah," which she said was a wonderful book! To quote
her own words: 'Even doubters would find a powerful strength in it, if
they would read it alone, and would give their souls time to expand.' ...I
asked her if I could perhaps speak of the brooch which historically is
precious to Baha'is, and she replied, 'Yes, you may.' Once, and it was in
1928, Her dear Majesty had given the writer a gift, a lovely and rare
brooch which had been a gift to the Queen from her royal relatives in
Russia some years ago. It was two little wings of wrought gold and silver,
set with tiny diamond chips, and joined together with one large pearl.
'Always you are giving gifts to others, and I am going to give you a gift
from me,' said the Queen smiling, and she herself clasped it onto my
dress. The wings and the pearl made it seem 'Light-bearing' Baha'i! It was
sent the same week to Chicago as a gift to the Baha'i Temple ... and at
the National Baha'i Convention which was in session that spring, a demur
was made--should a gift from the Queen be sold? Should it not be kept as a
souvenir of the first Queen who arose to promote the Faith of Baha'u'llah?
However, it was sold immediately and the money given to the Temple, for
all Baha'is were giving to the utmost to forward this mighty structure,
the first of its kind in the United States of America. Mr. Willard Hatch,
a Baha'i of Los Angeles, Calif., who bought the exquisite brooch, took it
to Haifa, Palestine, in 1931, and placed it in the Archives on Mt. Carmel,
where down the ages it will rest with the Baha'i treasures..."

In July, 1938, Queen Marie of Rumania passed away. A message of condolence
was communicated, in the name of all Baha'i communities in East and West,
to her daughter, the Queen of Yugoslavia, to which she replied expressing
"sincere thanks to all of Baha'u'llah's followers." The National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Persia addressed, on behalf of the followers of
the Faith in Baha'u'llah's native land, a letter expressive of grief and
sympathy to her son, the King of Rumania and the Rumanian Royal Family,
the text of which was in both Persian and English. An expression of