assemblies of Baha'i world, thereby
paving way to ultimate organic union of these assemblies through formation
of International House of Justice destined to launch enterprises embracing
whole Baha'i world. Acclaim simultaneous inauguration of crusade linking
administrative machinery of four national assemblies of East and West
within four continents and birth of first International Council at World
Center of Faith, twin evidences of resistless unfoldment of embryonic,
divinely appointed World Order of Baha'u'llah.

[January 17, 1951]

STATUS OF BAHA'IS REGARDING MILITARY DUTY

No change whatsoever in status of Baha'is in relation to active military
duty. No compromise of spiritual principles of Faith possible, however
tense the situation, however aroused public opinion.

[January 17, 1951]

SPIRITUAL CONQUEST OF THE PLANET

The virtual termination of the interior ornamentation of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West; the forthcoming formation of the twin
national spiritual assemblies of Latin America, following upon the
establishment of a corresponding institution in the Dominion of Canada;
the full attainment of the prescribed goals on the European continent in
accordance with the provisions of the Second Seven Year Plan and the
consolidation already achieved in the North American continent, do not,
under any circumstances, imply that the vast responsibilities shouldered
by a valiant, an alert and resolute community, have been fully and totally
discharged, or that its members can afford, as the plan draws to its
conclusion, to sink into complacency or relax for one moment in their high
endeavors.

The hour destined to mark the triumphant conclusion of the second stage in
their historic, divinely conferred, world-encircling mission has not yet
struck. Rumblings, loud and persistent, presaging a crisis of extreme
severity in world affairs, confront them with a challenge which, in spite
of what they have already accomplished, they cannot and must not either
ignore or underrate. The rise of the World Administrative Center of their
Faith, within the precincts and under the shadow of its World Spiritual
Center, a process that has been kept in abeyance for well nigh thirty
years, whilst the machinery of the national and local institutions of a
nascent Order was being erected and perfected, presents them with an
opportunity which, as the champion-builders of that Order and the
torchbearers of