timately
to bring to a proper equipoise the divers ethnic elements comprised within
the highly diversified world-embracing Baha'i fellowship.

TRIBUTE TO PIONEERS IN AFRICAN FIELD

I feel moved, on this auspicious occasion, to pay a warm tribute to the
elected representatives, as well as the members, of the British, the
Persian, the American, the Egyptian and the Indian Baha'i Communities
which have participated, in pursuance of their respective plans, in the
opening stage of a colossal teaching campaign, constituting a vital phase
of the impending decade-long World Crusade, and aiming at the spiritual
conquest of the entire African continent. I desire in particular to
express to all those gathered at this conference my feelings of abiding
appreciation of the magnificent role played and of the remarkable prizes
won, by the small band of Persian, British and American pioneers, in the
course of the initial stage of this divinely propelled and mysteriously
unfolding collective enterprise, which has overshadowed both the Latin
American and European teaching campaigns launched in recent years, which
is destined to exert an incalculable influence on the fortunes of the
Faith throughout the world, and which may well have far-reaching
repercussions among the two chief races dwelling in the North American
continent.

FIRST AFRICAN PILLAR OF UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

To the American Baha'i Community, the chief executor of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
Divine Plan; to the British Baha'i Community, destined to play in future
decades a predominating role in opening to the Faith of Baha'u'llah not
only the British territories throughout the African continent, but the
divers dependencies of the British Crown scattered on the surface of the
globe; to the Persian Baha'i Community, at once the most venerable and
most consistently persecuted among its sister communities in both the East
and the West; to the Egyptian Baha'i Community that may well boast of
having erected in that continent the first pillar of the Universal House
of Justice; to the Indian Baha'i Community, fated to contribute, to a
marked degree, to the spiritual quickening of the Indians constituting a
noble element of the population of Africa--to these communities I feel I
must acknowledge my deep sense of thankfulness for the strenuous efforts
exerted by their pioneers to raise aloft the standard of the Faith in the
territories allocated to them in Liberia, Uganda, Tang