|  | Letter of 2 August 1955 | 
	| 1 | Dear Bahá'í Sister: | 
	| 2 | Your letters of June 11, July 16 and 22, August 30, 
October 12 and 17, November 2 and 17 and December 10, 
1954; and January 31 and February 19, April 28 and May 
21, 1955, with their various enclosures, have all been 
 
recived by the beloved Guardian, and he has instructed me 
to answer you on his behalf. | 
	| 3 | As the work of the Ten-Year Crusade steadily grows, he 
finds it more and more difficult to correspond with the 
National Assemblies frequently; and indeed is wondering 
what will be the situation in a few years' time, when we have 
so many additional National Bodies.  This explains why you 
have not heard from him before. | 
	| 4 | He was very happy to hear that the Vienna Hazíratu'l-Quds 
has been purchased, as this eliminates one of the 
important goals assigned to your Assembly under the Ten-Year 
Plan.  He will be pleased to see photographs of the 
building. | 
	| 5 | He feels that your action in advising the Crete pioneers to 
be very discreet in all respects, and your decision to 
correspond with them for the time being through their 
parents, were very wise. | 
	| 6 | The friends who have gone forth to new lands cannot be 
too careful.  Unless they can stay long enough to convert at 
least a small group of people, who will be firmly grounded 
in the Faith, and continue to work if they are forced to 
leave, a great deal of time and money will have been wasted, 
and the progress of the Plan suffer a serious setback. | 
	| 7 | He will certainly pray for the pioneers there, for their 
protection and their guidance.  They should by all means 
persevere and act discreetly. | 
	| 8 | He was very satisfied to hear of the progress made at the 
Teaching Conference held in Frankfurt under the aegis of 
the European Hands.  He feels sure that this helped to 
stimulate and coordinate the work.  Association and 
consultation, as `Abdu'l-Bahá so repeatedly emphasized, 
have a great effect on the friends, and enable them to see the 
work of the Cause as a whole, rather than as a small local 
 
enterprise in which their personalities and other people's 
personalities often conflict; and challenge them to arise and 
go forth into new fields, in order to spread the Faith far and 
wide. | 
	| 9 | The Guardian attaches the greatest importance to the 
Temple enterprise.  He feels that if, for any reason, you do 
not win the case and get permission to build the Temple on 
the land you have already chosen, a new piece of land must 
be speedily bought.  He is hoping that the case will be 
satisfactorily settled, and that there will be no necessity for 
you to look further. | 
	| 10 | The preparation of designs for the Temple he feels, 
however, should not wait upon the conclusion of the court 
case.  It is going to take some time to receive designs, to 
forward them to him for his advice, and to incorporate any 
possible changes that may be deemed necessary, if one of the 
designs is found satisfactory.  He therefore advises you to 
open the competition as soon as you can, and not lose any 
more time. | 
	| 11 | He wishes at this juncture to stress to your Assembly the 
need for economy.  The Temple must naturally be a 
dignified and worthy edifice.  He does not consider that any 
of these modernistic experiments in architecture are at all 
suitable for a building of this nature, lacking as they so often 
do, beauty and dignity. | 
	| 12 | He also considers that the building should be a relatively 
small one, both because of the size of the Community in 
Germany, and the financial resources of the Faith at 
present.  The most important thing of all is to build this first 
Temple on European soil. | 
	| 13 | In the days when `Abdu'l-Bahá was urging the American 
Bahá'ís to build the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the western 
world, He repeatedly emphasized that it could be a modest 
 
building, and that the important thing was the spiritual 
element that this House of Worship in the name of 
Bahá'u'lláh should be raised in the heart of America.  The 
same thing applies now to your Temple in Germany.  Size 
and pretentiousness are not important.  The important thing 
is that the building should be speedily erected, and be a 
financial possibility, not placing, as the American Temple, a 
terrible strain on the friends for years to come. | 
	| 14 | He is happy to see that the German friends have been 
able, during the last few years, to move about much more, 
attend conferences in other European countries, go forth as 
pioneers, and gradually increase the number of centres in 
Germany and Austria.  He attaches the greatest importance 
to this because one of the main tasks of your Assembly is to 
insure that Austria will have an independent National 
Assembly by the end of the Plan; and she cannot do this 
unless she multiplies her Spiritual Assemblies in order to 
build a broad foundation for the National Body.  He hopes 
you will constantly encourage the Vienna Bahá'ís and the 
isolated believers in Austria to increase their teaching 
activities, to strengthen the work of the Faith, to pioneer in 
new centres, and, above all, to be united; as unity is one of 
the greatest forces at our disposal for achieving the work of 
the Cause. | 
	| 15 | He assures you one and all that he remembers you most 
lovingly in his prayers in the holy Shrine, and supplicates for 
the removal of every obstacle in your path and the 
attainment of all your goals.... | 
	| 16 | P.S.  The Guardian wishes particularly to thank you all 
for your loving message to him on the occasion of Ridván, 
which he appreciated receiving very much.  He assures you 
all that he prays that great victories may attend your efforts 
to spread the Faith and consolidate its foundations. | 
	| 17 | [From the Guardian:] | 
	| 18 | Dear and valued co-workers: | 
	| 19 | The steady extension and consolidation of the activities in 
which the members of the Bahá'í communities in Germany 
and Austria are so devotedly, so unitedly and strenuously 
engaged, have greatly cheered my heart, heightened my 
admiration for them, and reinforced my hopes for the 
triumphant conclusion of their collective enterprises 
undertaken in accordance with the provisions of the Ten-Year 
Plan. | 
	| 20 | By virtue of the important position they occupy in the 
heart of the European continent; singled out for special 
favours by the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant among their 
sister communities in that same continent; distinguished 
through the appointment of two Hands of the Cause from 
among their members; entrusted with the tremendous and 
sacred responsibility of erecting the first Bahá'í House of 
Worship on European soil; displaying, on the morrow of 
the ordeals which have for so long and so cruelly afflicted 
them, a virility, a courage, a fidelity worthy of emulation by 
their sister communities not only in neighbouring lands but 
throughout the Bahá'í world, these twin communities, 
destined through their common language, racial 
characteristics and traditions to play a notable and distinct 
part in the world-wide progress of the Faith in both the 
European and Asiatic continents, must continue to forge 
ahead, with inflexible resolve, unshakable faith, undimmed 
vision, and unabated vigour, along the road leading them to 
the fulfilment of their high destiny. | 
	| 21 | The steady increase in the number of the adherents of the 
Faith in both countries and the multiplication of isolated 
centres, groups and local assemblies is a task of primary 
importance to which they must direct special attention 
during the last year of the second phase of this world-embracing 
 
spiritual Crusade.  Equally vital in sacredness 
and importance is the definite settlement of the issue that 
has arisen in connexion with the purchase of the site of the 
future Temple in the neighbourhood of Frankfurt, as well as 
the selection of its design, as essential preliminaries to the 
excavation of its foundations and the erection of its 
structure.  Both of these require the concentrated and 
sustained attention of the elected representatives of these 
communities, whose task is to expedite this pre-eminent 
undertaking destined to exert a far-reaching spiritual 
influence on the fortunes of the Faith not only in Germany 
and Austria but throughout the European continent and 
even far beyond its borders. | 
	| 22 | Still another obligation that must under no circumstances 
be lost sight of or neglected is the incorporation of definitely 
established local assemblies in these two adjoining 
countries, a process that will greatly consolidate the 
administrative foundations of the Faith and enhance its 
prestige in the European continent. | 
	| 23 | The adoption of special measures by these same elected 
national representatives, designed to hasten the emergence 
of an independent National Spiritual Assembly in Austria, is 
yet another duty which calls for urgent and earnest 
consideration on their part and one which, if worthily 
performed, will lend a tremendous impetus to the progress 
of the Faith in a country occupying so central a position in 
Europe, so rich in its past history, and blessed by the 
footsteps of `Abdu'l-Bahá. | 
	| 24 | The splendid work accomplished by German pioneers in 
virgin territories in both the North and South of Europe, 
auguring well for the accomplishment of a similar mission in 
the Eastern territories forming part of their alloted task 
under the Ten-Year Plan, must be jealously safeguarded and 
 
continually reinforced, as it constitutes a prelude to the 
victories that must needs be won, in the course of future 
Plans, on the eastern confines of that continent and even as 
far afield as the heart of Asia. | 
	| 25 | Nor must the establishment of the projected Bahá'í 
Publishing Trust be delayed, as it constitutes one of vital 
objectives of the Crusade on which the German Bahá'í 
community has embarked. | 
	| 26 | No sacrifice can be deemed too great for the attainment of 
these shining goals and the winning of such precious prizes.  
The members of these closely knit communities must arise 
as never before, and brace themselves for a still greater 
output of energy, and a still more convincing display of 
those qualities that have distinguished their stewardship to 
the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, and prepare to enter victoriously 
upon the third phase of the Ten-Year Plan during the 
concluding months of this current year. | 
	| 27 | The tragic sufferings afflicting their brethren in 
Bahá'u'lláh's native land, involving a setback in the projects 
of this persecuted community for the erection of its Mother 
Temple in Tihrán, must reinforce their resolve to speed the 
erection of a corresponding House of Worship in the 
heart of Europe.  The efforts of their national elected 
representatives, strenuous as they have been in recent 
months, must be doubled, nay trebled, in order to offset, in 
this particular and most important field, the inevitable and 
deplorable delay in the accomplishment of so meritorious, 
so momentous and historic a task. | 
	| 28 | Unperturbed by the clamour of inveterate, powerful and 
malicious adversaries in the land of the birth of their Faith; 
undaunted by the opposition which exponents of religious 
orthodoxy are, to a lesser degree, now beginning to show in 
their own homeland, these same elected representatives, 
 
must press forward, resolutely, and confront and speedily 
surmount whatever obstacles now stand in their path. | 
	| 29 | Theirs is a responsibility which, at this historic and 
crucial stage in the evolution of their precious and beloved 
Faith, they can neither minimize nor neglect.  Theirs is a 
God-sent opportunity to demonstrate, at this grave hour 
through which the overwhelming majority of their brethren 
are passing, the incorruptible character of their faith, the 
indomitable spirit which animates them, the sublimity of the 
principles which motivate their action, providing thereby an 
abiding and sorely needed consolation to the victims of the 
brutal, the wide spread and repeated persecutions engulfing 
so many of their co-religionists in the cradle of their Faith. | 
	| 30 | That they may prove themselves worthy of their high 
calling; that they may set an inspiring example to their co-workers 
in both Hemispheres, through the number and 
quality of their accomplishments; that they may discharge, 
in their entirety, the manifold responsibilities assured under 
a Plan constituting so notable a stage in the accomplishment 
of the Glorious mission envisioned for them by `Abdu'l-Bahá, 
is the object of my unceasing prayers when supplicating 
at the threshold of His Shrine. | 
	| 31 | May His watchful, His sustaining and ever loving Spirit 
guide every step they take, bless every effort they exert, and 
fulfil every hope they cherish, in the pursuit of the victories 
they have resolutely set themselves to achieve. | 
	| 32 | Shoghi |