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10 January 1940
Stanley Bolton, 9 Martin Place, Sydney.
DELIGHTED FERVENTLY PRAYING EVER INCREASING SUCCESS GUIDANCE INFANT VITAL INSTITUTION
4 April 1940 [Silver Jackman]
Dear Bahá'í Sister,
The Guardian wishes me to gratefully acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated February 22nd, and of the sum of thirty pounds which you had been asked by the N.S.A. of Australia & New Zealand to forward to him as a contribution made by them in the name of our Australian and New Zealand believers to the International Fund in Haifa.
Kindly assure your fellow-members in the N.S.A., & through them the friends in that land of his loving appreciation of their donation, which he has graciously accepted, & will use for the furtherance of the international interests of the Faith.
I take this opportunity of conveying to you also his warmest New Year greetings, & of assuring you of his ardent prayers for your continued guidance and success in your Services to the Cause, and for the welfare & protection of our dear Australian & New Zealand believers in these dark & indeed distressing days.
Thanking you again for your loving message, Yours in His Service, H. Rabbani.
May the Almighty pour forth His manifold blessing upon you & your dear & devoted co-workers, & aid you all to hold aloft the banner of the Faith in these dark days of stress & peril, & assist you to fulfil your dearest hopes in His service,
Your true brother, Shoghi
18 April 1940
Dear Ethel Dawe:
I would have answered your welcome letter before but shortly before receiving it the news came that my beloved Mother had passed away unexpectedly in Buenos Aires. This was, as you can well imagine, a most heavy blow to hear!
She had gone there to teach our beloved Faith, but as she was over seventy and had very frail health, it seems to have proved too much of an exertion for her - she died of heart failure three days after her arrival!
The love and kindness of the Guardian has been my mainstay and support and the wonderful things he has said of Mother have helped assuage the wound.
She died as I hope all of us will, serving this beloved Cause up to the last minute - giving all for it. Like our dear Martha Root! We have wonderful souls who have shown us the way, all we have to do is pray for strength to follow in their way!
I have often thought of you and was so happy to hear from you.
Please give my love to all the dear friends, especially your cousin - I believe - whom you always called "Maisie".
Your loving Bahá'í sister, RÏhíyyih
4 November 1940 [National Assembly]
Dear Mrs. Jackman,
The Guardian wishes me to express his deep regret at this tardy acknowledgment of your letter of June 6th received some time ago.
The cheque for five pounds which you had enclosed representing the N.S.A.'s donation to the fund for our distressed 'Ishqábád believers has also safely arrived, & the sum will, without further delay, be transmitted to Irán.
This welcome & striking evidence of your solicitude for the suffering brethren in a land so distant from your shores cannot indeed but profoundly move them, & deepen their consciousness of the bonds of close solidarity & fellowship that so firmly knit together the component parts of the Bahá'í world.
Regarding the tracts & publications which your N.S.A. or individual believers in Australia & New Zealand occasionally receive from Ahmad Sohrab & the New History Society; the Guardian would advise the friends to completely disregard such publications. Any attempt to refute such unfounded attacks on the Cause & the Administrative Order, he feels, would be sheer waste of time & energy, as Ahmad Sohrab's efforts are doomed to failure.
With the renewed assurances of his prayers on behalf of the N.S.A. and with loving greetings to you all,
Yours in His Service, H. Rabbani.
May the Almighty reward you all a thousandfold for your self-sacrificing efforts, your unfailing solicitude for the interests of the Faith, & your devotion & perseverance in the path of Bahá'í service.
Your true and grateful brother, Shoghi
14 November 1940 [National Assembly]
Dear Miss Brooks,
Your communications dated April 22nd and August 23rd written on behalf of the N.S.A. of Australia and New Zealand with the enclosed reports have all been safely received, and their contents noted with feelings of deepest satisfaction and gratitude by our beloved Guardian.
Also he has received the copy of the Mittagong Star, the reproduction of registration certificate, the three snaps and the three photographs which you had mailed under separate cover, for all of which he wishes you to heartily thank the N.S.A. on his behalf.
He wishes you, in particular, to convey his warmest greetings and congratulations to the members of the newly-elected N.S.A., whose names he has been very pleased to note, and to assure them of his prayers for their guidance and confirmation in the discharge of their heavy and sacred duties and responsibilities throughout this year. Despite the sorrow and distress created by the war, and the heavy sacrifices it is increasingly imposing upon the community of the faithful throughout Australia and New Zealand, he confidently hopes that your Assembly, with the help and support of all the believers in that land, will continue prosecuting, with the same devoted zeal, resourcefulness and determination as before, its twofold task of extending the scope of the teaching work, and of the further consolidating the foundations of the Administration. The unity and efficiency with which it has been functioning in the past year, as attested by the rich record of its accomplishments, indeed augur well for the future of its activities, and it is the Guardian's fervent hope that, notwithstanding the delay and dislocation which the prosecution of the war has inevitably occasioned, it will continue to advance and prosper, and receive unforeseen opportunities of spreading and of strengthening the foundations of the Cause throughout that far-off Continent.
In this time of world calamity his thoughts and prayers are often with our dearly-beloved friends in Australia and New Zealand, and he is ardently supplicating Bahá'u'lláh, on their behalf, that He may bestow upon them such measure of His guidance, protection and strength as would enable them to courageously and successfully meet the tests and trials of the days ahead.
Assuring you, in closing, of his special prayers on your own behalf, and reciprocating your greetings,
Yours in His Service, H. Rabbani
Dear co-worker:
The report of your activities and of those of your fellow-workers, undertaken at such a time, and despite such difficulties, and with such a courage, devotion, determination, thoroughness and fidelity, deserves indeed the highest praise and constitutes a powerful evidence of the unconquerable Spirit, and the ever-extending range and the ever-deepening influence of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh. Your work is surely blessed by Him, and your fellow-labourers in distant lands derive great encouragement and inspiration from the incessant and remarkable efforts you are so devotedly exerting. Persevere and rest assured that I will, with increasing fervour, pray on your behalf at the Holy Shrines.
Your true and grateful brother, Shoghi
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