them of the Mansion at Bahji after two score years
of occupancy, and which, when carried out, will mark the final cleansing,
after more than sixty-five years, of the immediate surroundings of the
holiest Spot in the Baha'i world.

Nor can I dismiss this subject related to the progress achieved in the
development of Baha'i international institutions in the Holy Land without
a special reference to the continual extension and embellishment of the
international endowments of the Faith in the plain of Akka and on the
slopes of Mt. Carmel, the value of which now exceeds five million two
hundred thousand dollars, as well as to the ever-swelling crowds of
visitors flocking to the Baha'i Shrines in both of these places, and
particularly to the number of those entering the Tomb of the Bab which,
during a single day, in a three-hour period, has exceeded a thousand.

THE TEN-YEAR PLAN IN THE UNITED STATES

In the United States of America, the cradle and citadel of the embryonic
World Order of Baha'u'llah, the elected national representatives of the
American Baha'i Community, acting as the representatives of the
International Baha'i Community, charged with the defense of the cause of
their persecuted brethren in the cradle of the Faith, have energetically
pursued their efforts, through representations made to the United Nations
officials and agencies in New York and Geneva, through their contact with
high-ranking officials of the American State Department and through
measures of publicity in the American Press, all culminating in the
victory won over the adversaries of the Faith, to which reference has been
made earlier in these pages.

The landscaping of the Temple area, including the operation of the nine
fountains, as envisaged by 'Abdu'l-Baha, has been completed at a cost of
two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The number of visitors who,
since public guiding has been instituted, have flocked to the doors of
this Mother Temple of the West, now standing amidst such attractive
surroundings, has exceeded seven hundred thousand, whilst more than three
thousand have entered its doors in the course of a single day.
Authorization has moreover been recently given by the Wilmette Village
Board for the construction of the Home for the Aged, the first Dependency
of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar. The value of national and local endowments
owned by, and under the control of, that community, whose members have so
spontaneously