l members
may attend only in a consultative capacity. I realise fully the delicacy
and difficulty of your position but it must be made clear to all that nine
and only nine can vote. All other subsidiary matters are left to the
Assemblies.

Lovingly,
Shoghi

Letter of 11 April 1926

11 April 1926(8)

I gratefully acknowledge the receipt of the sum of seventeen pounds from
my dear friends the Baha'is of England as their much appreciated
contribution for the purchase of land around the Holy Shrines on Mt.
Carmel.

Shoghi

Letter of 22 April 1926

22 April 1926(9)

To the beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout
the West.

Fellow-labourers in the Divine Vineyard:

In the midst of the many vicissitudes which the creative Word of God is
destined to encounter in the course of its onward march towards the
redemption of the world, there breaks upon us the news of still another
loss, more bewildering in its character, yet more inspiring in its
challenge, than any of the gravest happenings of recent times. Once again
the woeful tale of unabated persecution, involving this time the martyrdom
of twelve of our long-suffering brethren in Jahrum, southern Persia, has
reached our ears, and filled us with a gloom which all the joys and
ennobling memories of Ridvan have failed to dispel.

From the meagre reports which have thus far been received from that
distracted country it appears that this shameful and atrocious act, though
the outcome of a number of obscure and complex causes, has been chiefly
instigated by that ever-present factor of fierce and relentless impulse of
religious hostility. Persia--long-neglected and sorely-tried--continues,
despite the revival of recent hopes, to be the down-trodden victim of
unscrupulous personal rivalries and factious intrigue, of tribal revolt,
political dissensions and religious animosities--all of which have in times
past brought in their wake the shedding of the blood of so many of its
innocent and choicest sons.

Fully alive to the gravity of the occasion, and realising the urgency of
my sacred duty, I have, upon the receipt of the news, transmitted
telegraphically through the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of
Persia a special message addressed in the name of the Baha'is in every
land to the supreme Authority in the State, expressing our profound horror
at this outrageous act as well as our earnest entreaty to inflict
immedi