he communication addressed to the American Baha'i National
Spiritual Assembly by the Quartermaster General of that Department, on
August 14, 1942--approving the use of the symbol of the Greatest Name on
stones marking the graves of Baha'is killed in the war and buried in
military or private cemeteries, distinguishing thereby these graves from
those bearing the Latin Cross or the Star of David assigned to those
belonging to the Christian and Jewish Faiths respectively.

Nor should mention be omitted of the equally successful application made
by the American Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly to the Office of Price
Administration in Washington, D.C., asking that the chairmen and
secretaries of Baha'i local Assemblies should, in their capacity as
officers conducting religious meetings, and authorized, in certain states,
to perform marriage services, be eligible for preferred mileage under the
provisions of the Preferred Mileage Section of the Gasoline Regulations,
for the purpose of meeting the religious needs of the localities they
serve.

Nor have the Baha'i communities in other countries such as India, 'Iraq,
Great Britain and Australia, been slow to either appreciate the advantages
derived from the publication of this historic verdict, or to exploit, each
according to its capacity and within the limits imposed upon it by
prevailing circumstances, the opportunities afforded by such public
testimonial for a further demonstration on their part of the independent
character of the Faith whose administrative structure they had already
erected. Through the enforcement, to whatever extent deemed practicable,
of the laws ordained in their Most Holy Book; through the severance of all
ties of affiliation with, and membership in, ecclesiastical institutions
of whatever denomination; through the formulation of a policy initiated
for the sole purpose of giving further publicity to this mighty issue,
marking a great turning-point in the evolution of the Faith, and of
facilitating its ultimate settlement, these communities, and indeed all
organized Baha'i bodies, whether in the East or in the West, however
isolated their position or immature their state of development, have,
conscious of their solidarity and well aware of the glorious prospects
opening before them, arisen to proclaim with one voice the independent
character of the religion of Baha'u'llah and to pave the way for its
emancipation from whatever fetters, be they ecclesias