SETTLEMENT OF PIONEERS IN NEWFOUNDLAND
The Guardian is immensely pleased over the settlement of pioneers[8] in Newfoundland; this has accomplished one of the specific desires of the beloved Master, and will redound to the glory of the Canadian Bahá’ís.
The next, most important task is to get Miss Gates[9] into Greenland. This is fraught with many difficulties, but he urges your Assembly to persevere and exert its utmost to remove every obstacle. He will specially pray that a way may open for her to enter that country.
Regarding your question about contributions: it is up to the individual to decide; if he wishes to denote a sum to a specific purpose, he is free to do so; but the friends should recognize the fact that too much labelling of contributions will tie the hands of the Assembly and prevent it from meeting its many obligations in various fields of Bahá’í activity.
Concerning the points your Assembly raised in the letter of December 20, 1949:
The Guardian is very anxious that no new rules and regulations should be introduced. As far as possible each N.S.A. should decide secondary matters for itself, and not try to lay down a rule general in application.
Bahá’u’lláh gives no right of appeal to the law that both parents must give permission to the marriage, if they are living—Bahá’í marriages should be referred to assemblies to officiate; where there is no Assembly to officiate your body is free to decide what procedure should be followed. Whether it is the chairman or secretary or some other person who actually conducts the marriage is, likewise, a matter for your body to decide.
The Guardian has not found it desirable, for various reasons, to send a recorded message to any Convention.