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IN THE PACIFIC AREA- In the Pacific area, where Baha'i exploits bid fair to outshine the feats achieved in any other ocean, and indeed in every continent of the globe, now competing for the palm of victory with the African continent itself, preliminary measures have been undertaken for the formation of no less than three of the thirteen national and regional spiritual assemblies which are to be established in the course of this year's Ridvan festivities. These three assemblies, the seats of which are to be located in Japan, in Indonesia and in the Dominion of New Zealand, are destined to function in regions where the yellow, the brown and white races predominate, and in which the majority of the inhabitants belong either to the Buddhist, the Muslim or Christian Faiths. In so vast and promising an area, blessed by the labors of two Hands of the Cause of God, the number of localities where Baha'is reside, which in the concluding years of the Apostolic Age of the Faith, had barely reached ten, has now swelled to over two hundred and ten, scattered over no less than forty islands. It already boasts over seventeen hundred believers of the brown race alone, more than fifty local spiritual assemblies, five national Haziratu'l-Quds, three Baha'i schools, twenty-one incorporated local spiritual assemblies, four states where Baha'i national endowments have been established, a site purchased for its first projected Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, three territories where the Baha'i Marriage Certificate is recognized, and three others where Baha'i children have been allowed to observe the Baha'i Holy Days, as well as the translation of Baha'i literature into no less than fifty of the languages current among its indigenous population. It, moreover, prides itself on the initiation of teaching activities in no less than a hundred of the four hundred islands constituting one of its numerous southern archipelagos. (111:1) THE MOTHER-TEMPLES OF THREE CONTINENTS- So brilliant and diversified a record of services to the Cause of Baha'u'llah, in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, has been greatly enriched by the plans now initiated for the launching of an ambitious three-fold enterprise, designed to compensate for the disabilities suffered by the sorely-tried Community of the followers of His Faith in the land of His birth, aiming at the erection, in localities as far apart as Frankfurt, Sydney and Kampala, of the Mother-Temples of the European, the Australian and African continents, at a cost of approximately one million dollars, complementing the Temples already constructed in the Asiatic and American continents. One-third of this sum I, gladly and with a grateful heart, pledge at this auspicious hour, a sum which, when added to the funds already donated for this laudable purpose, amounting to one hundred and forty thousand dollars - over one hundred thousand of which represents the munificent donation of the Hand of the Cause, Amelia Collins - will constitute well-nigh half of the entire amount required to ensure the consummation of this stupendous, epoch-making undertaking.
(111:2)
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