, Montevideo,
Oslo, Panama City, Port-au-Prince, Quito, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San Jose,
Santiago, San Salvador, Stockholm, Suva, Tegucigalpa, The Hague, Tokyo,
and Vienna, as well as for the acquisition of the Garden of Ridvan in
Ba_gh_dad, the transfer of the remains of the wife of the Bab in _Sh_iraz
and for the purchase of the sites associated with Baha'u'llah's exile in
Istanbul and in Adrianople. The initiation of these Funds has been made
possible to a notable extent as a result of the successive contributions
made by the Hand of the Cause, Amelia Collins, outstanding benefactress of
the Faith, for the furtherance of some of the most vital objectives of the
Ten-Year Plan. Negotiations are now afoot aiming at the acquisition of the
fortress of _Ch_ihriq including its precincts involving the expenditure of
a sum of over two hundred thousand tumans. Preliminary documents have been
signed in connection with the purchase from the Development Authority of
the State of Israel of five houses, situated at the foot of Mt. Carmel and
adjoining the last terrace of the Bab's Shrine, for a sum of approximately
sixty thousand dollars.

The phenomenal progress of the African Campaign, alike in the teaching and
administrative spheres of Baha'i activity, has been maintained, most
conspicuously in the heart of that continent, as evidenced by the
ever-swelling number of African converts, now numbering over seven
hundred, three hundred and eighty of which have been added in the course
of a single year. The number of Baha'i centers now spread over the face of
this continent is a hundred and ninety-five. The number of African tribes
represented in the Faith in this same continent has reached eighty-five.
The African languages into which Baha'i literature has been translated now
number thirty-four, whilst the number of African local spiritual
assemblies has swelled to fifty.

I feel the hour is now ripe for the adoption of preliminary measures
designed to pave the way for the simultaneous erection during Ridvan of
1956 of three pillars of the future Universal House of Justice in the
North, the South and the very heart of this long dormant continent. The
first of these pillars will be designated the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Baha'is of Central and East Africa; the second the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of South and West Africa; and the third
the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of North-West Africa.
Resp