He hopes that the auxiliary Board for Europe recently established, will be of great help in the work to be carried out by the administrative bodies throughout Europe.
The most important thing is to keep the pioneer territories which have been settled open. There must be no lapse. The friends must be urged to remain at their posts at all costs. They must remember the glorious example of Marion Jack, who recently passed away in Bulgaria, after almost 30 years of devoting her life to teaching the Faith in that country of her choice. As many of you who knew her personally will recall, her health was very bad, as far back as 1935, when she attended the Esslingen Summer School. It certainly never improved. She was bombed, evacuated, she slept in some drafty, cold room in a school in the country, was often, we have reason to believe, almost hungry, and insufficiently clad after the war, due to difficulties in getting money through to her in an Soviet-dominated territory. She never mastered the language, and was without friends of her own country; and yet, she persevered, and, in spite of even the Guardian’s pleas that she leave the country during the worst years of the war, remained at her post, and won for herself imperishable fame, her resting-place becoming a shrine in Bulgaria, which the people of that country will increasingly honour and cherish.
It is to this glorious soul that the present generation of pioneers must look for inspiration and example.
He is very happy that the German Bahá’ís have been able to settle in Crete and the Frisian Islands, a great step forward, when one realizes how much their activities have been circumscribed, during the past thirty years, by circumstances over which they had no control.
He thanks you for sending him ten copies of each of your new publications, and would like you to continue doing so, as any new literature comes out.
So far he has not received any copies of “God Passes By” in German, but is hoping to do so.
He appreciates very much the sentiments you expressed to him in connection with the loss of our dear Hands of the Cause, Mr. Schopflocher and Mrs. Baker. The friends everywhere must try and make up for the work these devoted and consecrated souls would have done, had they not passed to the Abhá Kingdom. In this way they can best express their admiration and gratitude.
He is very happy to see that your National Convention has been so successful, and that the influence of the future Temple is already being felt, and attracting the hearts of the believers, including many previously inactive. It shows what these Bahá’í institutions are going to do as they develop.
You may be sure that he remembers all the members of your Assembly in his loving prayers in the holy Shrines, and supplicates that the German and Austrian Bahá’í Communities may exceed all their past records of achievement during this present Bahá’í year....
[From the Guardian:]