o of this date), and 9th,
together with their various enclosures, have been received, and our
beloved Guardian has instructed me to answer your assembly on his behalf.

He was very happy to hear of your meeting held in Melbourne, as he feels
sure this was a great stimulus to the local community, and he hopes that
circumstances will permit the N.S.A. to meet in other communities and
inspire and encourage the friends in different parts of the country by
this personal contact with them and their work.

In regard to the various matters raised in your letters: He would be
pleased to receive reports of the Teaching Work, the Annual Convention and
Annual Reports, and, of course, the minutes of your N.S.A. meetings.

He does not feel it advisable to combine more than one town area in an
Assembly, as you have suggested might be done. It is better for the
friends to move, if possible, into one town's limits, and form their
Assembly that way, or concentrate on their teaching work and wait until
they have the requisite 9 members.

Unfortunately it is not feasible for the believers to elect or constitute
an Assembly and also elect and send delegates to the Annual Convention of
the same year, as both events take place in the Ridvan period.

The Guardian is striving to build up uniformity in essentials all over the
Baha'i World, and this frequently involves a small measure of delay in
achieving our various goals set locally. But he considers it sufficiently
important to warrant the sacrifices it sometimes involves:

In this connection he would like to mention your Local By-Laws: He feels
that they should conform much more closely to the original one of the New
York Assembly. What is absolutely essential was incorporated in those, and
all other local assemblies being incorporated should follow this pattern
as closely as local legal technicalities permit. This again is in order to
maintain international uniformity in essentials. It is not a question here
of whether the By-Laws drawn up by your Legal Committee are not more up to
date and do not represent the last word, undoubtedly they are and do, but
if every country, when drawing up its Local By-Laws, continue this process
of elaboration, in the end uniformity will be lost. The Eastern Assemblies
have adhered to the original By-Laws so carefully that they have
practically translated them word for word and adopted them. He feels sure
Mr. Dive will understand this, and he would like