u, all of the dear believers in
Australia and New Zealand, and your devoted pioneers serving so far
afield, to be of good heart, to persevere, and to rest assured that the
Beloved will watch over and protect your labours.

He will pray for all the members of your Assembly in the holy Shrines, and
for the success of your indefatigable labours.

With warm Baha'i greetings,
R. Rabbani.

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and valued co-workers:

The manifold evidences of the remarkable progress, achieved in almost
every field, by the Australian and New-Zealand Baha'i Communities since
the launching of the Ten-Year Plan, have truly rejoiced my heart, and
served to heighten my feelings of admiration for the sterling qualities
which the members of these Communities have increasingly displayed in
recent years.

There is no doubt whatever--and I truly feel proud to place it on
record--that the community of the followers of Baha'u'llah labouring for
His Cause in the Antipodes now occupies, by virtue of the quality of the
faith of its members, the soundness of their judgement, the clearness of
their vision, the scope of their accomplishments, and their exemplary
loyalty, courage and self-sacrifice, a foremost position among its sister
communities in all the continents of the globe.

Far from stagnating or declining in number or in influence it has in
recent years displayed a vitality which can well excite the admiration and
envy of them all, and has demonstrated, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a
fidelity to the principles of our Faith, whether a spiritual or
administrative, and a capacity for service which all may well emulate.

Though all the goals, in the virgin areas of the globe, assigned to the
elected national representatives of these two communities have not as yet
been attained, owing solely to circumstances beyond their control, yet the
spirit evinced by the pioneers belonging to these communities, who have so
gloriously initiated this major task, constituting the foremost objective
of the opening phase of this Ten-Year Crusade, has been such as to amply
compensate for the inability of their national elected representatives to
consummate, ere the close of the first year of the Ten-Year Plan, this
initial enterprise marking the inauguration of their Mission in foreign
fields. Particularly gratifying and indeed inspiring has been the response
of the members of your assembly to the Call for pioneers--a response that
has sur