and misunderstanding."

18: ATTACKS FROM CHURCH MISSIONARIES

"The Guardian has read very carefully the letters your Assembly has
received from the Spiritual Assemblies of Urbana and Chicago, reporting
the criticisms that have been advanced by Rev. John Elder, a missionary
from Iran. While he is certain that such attacks from church missionaries
are destined to increase in number and force in the future, he feels that
for the present they do not constitute a challenge so grave and widespread
as to justify any strong action by your Assembly. Later on, when the very
progress of the Cause on the one hand, and the corresponding decline in
ecclesiastical organizations on the other, will inevitably incite
Christian ecclesiastical leaders to vehemently oppose and undermine the
Faith, the believers will then have a real chance to defend and vindicate
the Cause. Under present conditions it would be inadvisable for the
American community to give such issues too much prominence."

19: BAB, DECLARATION OF

"In regard to the question submitted to your Assembly by the Baha'i group
at Maui, Hawaii, concerning the passage on page 88 of the book 'Baha'i
Administration,'

"...The Guardian wishes me to inform you that the festivals of the
Declaration of the Bab and the birthday of 'Abdu'l-Baha referred to in
that passage as having been celebrated on the twenty-second of November,
1925, by the Baha'is of the Orient, are based on the lunar calendar. For
this reason the date of the celebration is not fixed, but shifts every
year. Eventually as the Master has explicitly stated, a uniform system
will have to be established by the International House of Justice."

20: BAB'S PHOTOGRAPH

"May I also draw your attention to the fact that the Bab's photograph
which appeared in Nicolas' book, Siyyid 'Ali Muhammad dit le Bab, many
years ago, is not authentic, although it presents great similarity to the
original drawings of the Bab's portrait."

21: BAHA'I DISPENSATION (DURATION OF)

"Concerning your question relative to the duration of the Baha'i
Dispensation. There is no contradiction between Baha'u'llah's statement in
the Iqan about the renewal of the City of God once every thousand years,
and that of the Guardian in the Dispensation to the effect that the Baha'i
cycle will extend over a period of at least 500,000 years. The apparent
contradiction is due to the confusion of the terms cycle and dispe