To the Honored Members of the Baha'i National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the West.
My dear fellow-workers:
With feelings of burning indignation I find myself impelled to acquaint you with various events that have recently transpired in Persia. Though in their immediate effect these happenings may prove gravely disquieting to the followers of the Faith in Persia and elsewhere, yet they cannot but eventually contribute to the strengthening and purification of the Cause we steadfastly love and serve (137:7)

I refer to the treacherous conduct of a professed adherent of the teaching of Baha'u'llah, by the name of Abdu'l-Husayn Avarih, hitherto regarded as a respected teacher of the Cause, and not unknown by a few of its followers in Europe. Of a nature and character whom those who have learned to know him well have never ceased to despise, even in the brightest days of his public career in the Cause, he has of late been driven by the force of circumstances which his shortsightedness has gravely miscalculated to throw off the mask which for so many years hid his hideous self (137:10)

The sudden removal of the commanding personality of our beloved Abdu'l-Baha; the confused consternation that seized His followers in the years immediately succeeding His passing; the reputation which to superficial eyes he had acquired by his travels in Europe; the success attending his voluminous compilation of the history of the Cause -- these and other circumstances emboldened him to launch a campaign of insinuation and fraud aiming at the eventual overthrow of the institutions expressly provided by Baha'u'llah. He saw clearly his chance in the complete disruption of the Cause to capture the allegiance if not of the whole world-wide Baha'i community of at least a considerable section of its followers in the East (137:11)

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