f
a little over half a year in the number of sovereign States and
Dependencies included within its pale during the one hundred and nine
years of its existence.

The seventy-two virgin areas, brought within the orbit of the swiftly
expanding Baha'i administrative order since the launching of the World
Crusade, include twenty-one in the Americas, nineteen in Africa, nineteen
in Europe and thirteen in Asia.

The following pioneers have been inscribed on the Roll of Honor since the
last announcement: Gerald, Gail and Leeanna Curwin, Bahamas; Enoch Olinga,
British Cameroons; Malcolm King, British Guiana; Peggy and George True,
Canaries; Shirley Warde, British Honduras; Irving Geary, Cape Breton
Island; Zunilda Palacios, Chiloee Island; Edith Danielson, Cook Islands;
Himatlal Bhatt, Diu Island; Elinor and Robert Wolff, Dutch Guiana;
Eberhard Friedland, French Guiana; Labib Esphahani, French West Africa;
Adela and Salvador Tormo, Juan Fernandez Island; Gladys and Benjamin
Weeden, Leeward Islands; Frances Heller, Macao; Lionel Peraji, Mahe; Ola
Pawlowska, Miquelon and St. Pierre Islands; Elsie Austin, Nosrat
Shayesteh, Abbas Muhammad-'Ali Jalali Rowhani, Ardekani Hasanzadeh Rafii,
Morocco, International Zone; Bertha Dobbins, New Hebrides; Opal and Leland
Jensen, Reunion Island; Marie Ciocca, Sardinia; Abbas Kamil, Seychelles
Islands; Emma Rice and Mr. and Mrs. Bagley, Sicily; Greta Lamprill and
Glad Parke, Society Islands; Mr. and Mrs. McKay, Mr. and Mrs. Fleming and
Miss Jenssen, Spanish Morocco; Muhammad Mostafa, Spanish Sahara; Lillian
Middlemast and Esther M. Evans, Windward Islands.

As few as two territories of Europe, six in the Americas, fourteen in
Africa and twenty-two in Asia still remain unopened, excluding the
Republics and satellites of the Soviet Union. May the opening year of the
decade-long spiritual Crusade be victoriously concluded and befittingly
celebrated in the course of the festivities of next Ridvan through the
establishment of the nucleus of the Faith in each of the remaining
forty-four territories, insuring thereby the virtual attainment of the
foremost objective of the initial stage of the Ten Year Plan.

--Shoghi

[Cablegram, November 11, 1953]

FAST-DWINDLING BAND OF COVENANT-BREAKERS

Following the successive blows which fell with dramatic swiftness two
years ago upon the ring-leaders of the fast dwindling band of old
Covenant-breakers at the World Center of the Faith, God's aven