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Simultaneous with this striking development, the plan designed to insure the extension and completion of the arc serving as a base for the erection of future edifices constituting the World Baha'i Administrative Center, has been successfully carried out. The dilapidated house, situated in the close neighborhood of Baha'u'llah's Shrine, recently acquired from the Development Authority of the State of Israel, because of its historic associations, has been restored. Negotiations, moreover, have been initiated with that same Authority for the acquisition of two plots to the north and south of the Shrine, for the purpose of safeguarding its precincts from a further extension of the new settlements springing up rapidly in the plain of `Akka. Steps have also been taken to register the title-deeds of a centrally located plot, originally owned by a Covenant-breaker, and abutting on the International Archives, in the name of the Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the British Isles. A further blow has been struck at the remnants of the implacable enemies of `Abdu'l-Baha , the breakers of His Father's Covenant, still living in the immediate vicinity of the holiest Shrine of the Baha'i world, through the destruction of a row of ruinous sheds which had been under their control, through orders issued by the Municipal Authorities of `Akka. And, lastly, an expropriation order has been published in the Israel Official Gazette by the Treasury Department of Israel related to buildings enclosed within the Haram-i-Aqdas, aiming at the eviction of these same enemies from the outer Sanctuary of Baha'u'llah's Sepulcher, following upon the evacuation by them of the Mansion at Bahji after two score years of occupancy, and which, when carried out, will mark the final cleansing, after more than sixty-five years, of the immediate surroundings of the holiest Spot in the Baha'i world.
(108:2)
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