An Appeal to the Hands by Charles Mason Remey, Second Baha'i Guardian
AN APPEAL
TO
THE HANDS OF THE FAITH
BY
MASON REMEY
AN APPEAL
TO
THESE FRIENDS
RESIDING IN THE HOLY LAND
BY
MASON R
PRESIDENT OF THE BAHA'I INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
AND
HAND OF HE BAHA'I FAITH
IN THE YEAR
117
OF THE BAHA'I ERA
WASHINGTON D.C., U.S.A.
APRIL, 1960
A MOST CONFIDENTIAL LETTER
TO THE HANDS OF THE BAHA'I FAITH IN THE HOLY LAND
BELOVED FELLOW HANDS:
The time approaches for the annual convention of Baha’is here in America and I hear that many are looking forward expectantly to meeting Ruhiyyih Khanum, Leroy Ioas and others of the Hands who will be there while as for me myself, nothing could please me more than does the prospect of these friends being at the convention.
I find that the friends in this country in general have many questions in their minds about the Guardianship of the Faith. I feel that much good will result from this visitation of these Hands from The Holy Land to America for when they are there upon the ground gathered at the Baha'i Temple at Wilmette that is in the heart of America (that land that the Beloved Guardian called the Cradle of the Administration) that these visiting Hands from The Holy Land will then find themselves very close to the American believers en-mass and will have the opportunity through this closeness of understanding the attitude of the American mind toward the Administration and the Guardianship that seems to be generally quite different in some respects from that of the mind of the Persian believers, particularly with regard to the continuation of the Guardianship. Thus while in America these visiting Hands from Haifa will be able to get an all-around-the-world picture of these conditions and with more clarity than can be had at the distance that separates Israel and America.
The real question that the American Baha’is hold is with regards to the Administration and what is to become of the Administration as it was given in The Will and Testament of the Master and founded and put into working order by The Beloved Guardian and NOW???? This is the question in the American Baha'i mind.
This question is in the mind of the American friends upon all sides. Although the people here are thinking of this all the time and this shows and is clearly to be detected in their attitudes not notwithstanding; however, they are obeying the orders from The Holy Land and not discussing it. But it just will crop out occasionally in moments of relaxation. I have seen this condition for some time and the reason of this letter to you is to warn you to tell you that in my opinion while here in America, these Hands will in all probability come up against questions about the Guardianship and its future.
With this letter I am sending you photostat copies of a letter that I received from Dr. Udo Schaefer of Germany together with its accompanying enclosures – also a general letter from Louis Henuset of Belgium, a copy of a telgramme from Germany addressed to the Second Conclave of the Hands, a copy of the letter of Eugene Schmidt of Germany to the Hands of the Faith and a copy of that letter from Lucknow written by a Baha'i by the name of Gupta.
I take it for granted that you each and all have read and studied these documents, but they were received so long ago in Haifa that you may no longer remember the questions that they bring up?
So nearly as I can understand the mind of the American Baha’is, basically their questions are practically the same as those of these friends in Germany, Belgium and this believer Gupta of Lucknow who writes with such vision! The American mind may not be as clear and concise in its thinking as is these German, Belgian and Indian minds although on the whole and in the end Americans are quite as thorough in sizing things up as are these Germans and others.
I send you this expression of Baha'i thought coming from Europe and Asia because it is these same questions that they have that are in the American mind thus to warn you of that which you will in all probability be confronted with while in America!
As for myself, I am well and mingling with the Baha'i friends here where a very kindly and friendly spirit reigns in the meetings. There is not much spirit of life in the meetings but always a sweet but passive and kindly spirit. While with these believers I have ever in mind my promise to you before I left Haifa that I would in no way disclose nor divulge anything that transpired in the conclave nor conference of the Hands in The Holy Land, and this attitude I will continue to adhere to most carefully. The Americans, you know, are by nature not suspicious people, not until their suspicions are aroused but when something causes them to mistrust, conjecture and surmise take over and thus augur for uncertainty and loss of faith and trouble. I assure you that I will always do all in my power to guard and to promote the secrecy established by Hands of the Faith as to all of their proceedings and considerations, despite the fact that as you all know I myself differ so absolutely with the present decisions and policies of the Hands regarding the Administration of the Faith, namely their discontinuation of the Guardianship. However, notwithstanding my stand against the united body of the Hands of the Faith all of which I have spoken to you about in our conclaves and in our other consultations, I know that the only thing for me to do under these present conditions is to try to build up and maintain the trust of the people in the Hands of the Faith, the while at the same time trusting and praying that you will become aware of the evils into which your present program for 1963 is plunging the cause before it be too late; that is before you loose the confidence of the people and you loose face before the Baha'i world for such to come to pass you should never allow to happen. For the honor of the cause, the Hands of the Faith must always maintain the confidence of the Baha'i people of America, the Cradle of the Administration that is in reality the Guardianship.
Things are now at this critical point in America when a very slight jarring might result in the loss of prestige in which the believers hold the Hands of the Faith and to guard against any such loss of face of the body of Hands is at this moment my chiefest concern as I view the approach of the coming convention, but despite such caution one must be faithful to the teachings of the cause.
I tell you frankly that the mass of the believers here think and feel exactly as Louis Honuzet did when he wrote this letter of which I enclose a photostat. Please have someone translate this from the French so that you can all read and study it. It is a most comprehensive statement made by a most thoughtful believer.
The believers in America don’t realize that the overwhelming majority of the Hands don’t want the Guardianship to continue. They in America still hope for a Guardian. In plain words, they are deceived as to the real intent of the majority of the Hands of the Faith which is that the Hands intend that the Guardianship be forever closed!
Therefore I look with approval upon the attendance of Ruhiyyih Khanum, Leroy Ioas, and others of the Hands at this coming convention that they may see for themselves the real condition of things here in the Cradle of the Administration. This is why as I have already explained that I am writing you this letter. This is why as I have already explained that I am writing you this letter. The Hands of the Faith have much to learn about the ways of and the condition of the Baha'i Faith and at this moment I feel they can learn these things better here in America than in The Holy Land.
I promise you that I will do all I can to buttress up and to maintain the prestige of the Hands of the Faith in the eyes of the people. It will be well if the common believers exert gentle and kindly pressures upon the Hands to awaken the Hands to these conditions of which they, the Hands, may not be aware. This is why I urge you to study and ponder over these enclosed letters from Germany, India and Belgium, this in order that you may understand how both the Indian, American and these European believers think and feel and in their hearts react to the dictims of the Hands.
Again as a last word to you before the coming of the Hands of the Faith to the American National Convention, please be assured again of my most sincere efforts to support the dignity of the Faith – this means the dignity of the Hands of the Faith – before the people and in every way support you in your special right and spiritual province of the protection of the Faith that includes not only its inner workings but its eminence and honor before the world.
To reiterate again, it is very evident to me from both what I hear said by friends here in America as well as from what they don’t say that they are well and strongly centered in the Administration and in the Guardianship, and it is also evident to me that these Hands who are coming to the convention from Haifa are intent upon reinforcing the stand of the majority of the Hands against the continuation of the Guardianship which propaganda that has been behind and under all of the moves of many of the Hands since the First Conclave at Behje (although of course this intention has been withheld from the people and has only gotten out occasionally through the carelessness of some of the Hands in talking outside of your conferences) which propaganda you will surely eventually find impossible to continue putting over upon the Americans believers.
These believers in American are not going to make any trouble for the Hands such as openly revolting against the program that you are engaged upon for 1963, no, according to my thought they will do nothing like that but they will by their attitudes, if not by anything that they may say, get over to and into your heads and into your consciousness their underlying and basic faith in the Administration as given by the Master’s Will and Testament and thus make you realize the futility of your programme for 1963, and all this will thus result because America is “The Cradle of the Administration” to which trust the Americans are faithful.
But, as I say I hope that there will be no division amongst the believers upon this matter and I don’t think there will be for in the end the people by their deep attachments to the Administration and the Guardianship will follow the Hands I trust until the awakening of the Hands and their abandonment of the program for 1963.
Something is going to happen as a surprise to the Baha'i world from another direction altogether that is going to compel the Hands to acknowledge or to deny the Guardianship and thus save the Faith and all this will then be accomplished in accordance with the Will and Testament of the Master, reinforcing the truth that America is the Cradle of the Administration and in the end reinforcing the Administration and the Guardianship in the hearts of the Baha’is all over the world. Then and only then will the way be made open for all to realize the source of the infallible guidance necessary for the accomplishment of this world cruisade launched by our late Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi. But in the meanwhile before all these things are accomplished and the violation of the Will and Testament is overcome and cast out, the Hands of the Faith for the most part will have to take an awful thrashing; thus in the end will they expiate and atone for this condition in the cause that they have brought upon themselves. This is inevitable.
But all this should be brought about among the Hands and from within their own body and for this reason, as well as for many other reasons, it is necessary that the Hands of the Faith have the support of the entire Baha'i world, in order to protect the unity of the Faith in these days of the interregnum therefore, for this reason I am giving all the support that I can to support and maintain before the world the prestige of the Hands of the Faith amongst the people of the Faith. At this stage of the interregnum, this unity is yet to be maintained. But I know that you are upon the wrong track and that in the end your majority will be obliged to acknowledge your mistake.
Every night and every morning, I pray in this same vein concluding my prayer with an invocation to the Beloved Shoghi Effendi in the Abha Realm that “He pray, supplicate and intercede before the throne of God upon my behalf”. With much Baha'i love and affection and devotion to and my prayers for each of the Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land.
Faithfully,
MASON R.
NOTE
I send you the attached copies of the communications from Europe and Asia in the most strict confidence because these missives have to do with those subjects that the Hands of the Faith decided to hold in great secrecy, that is all that has transpired in the conclave and conferences of the Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land.
As for myself and my conduct of myself, I am most mindful and careful never to mention to any Baha'i anything that has transpired in our private meetings of the Hands of the Faith.
Thus you will see that of all the things discussed by the Hands of the Faith in private, I have made mention only of those matters that they, the Hands, have officially told to the outside Baha'i world in their messages to the Baha’is of the world.
STATEMENT
BY
MASON REMEY
GUARDIAN
OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
At the first Behje Conclave, the Hands of the Cause took over the management of the affairs of the Baha'i Faith. This was followed by their repudiation of the Administration – Guardianship of the Faith. This violation of the Guardianship, that is the heart of the Administration of the Baha'i Faith, is condemned by the Second Guardian of the Faith and all who follow this violation of the Baha'i Faith are pronounced by him to be violators of the Faith for thus by this action have they severed themselves from the Baha'i Religious Faith.
One of the first actions of these violating Hands of the Cause in this first conclave was to decree that no recorded or written records be taken of things transpiring in their conclaves. At the same time by a universally passed resolution, all were to hold in secret everything that transpired in those conclaves.
The Second Guardian of the Faith, then in occultation, in the capacity of a Hand of the Cause and President of the Baha'i International Council, sat with the Hands in this Guardianship was being perpetrated, but hoping to rectify this condition through friendly argument and pacific methods he agreed with the others, to keep in strict secret with them from the Baha'i world, all things that passed between the Hands of the Faith in their conclaves and conferences. For he hoped to be able to show them their errors and thus save them from their violation of the Faith.
Thus two and a half years or thereabouts of time passed, the while he was telling the Hands of their violation and begging them to reconsider their stand against the Guardianship - - but all to fail in the end in this endeavor.
Through his forbearance, the Second Guardian of the Faith kept this pact of secrecy with the Hands of the Cause as long as it was possible to keep it, hoping that they would have a change of heart, cast aside their violations of the Faith and welcome the advent of the Second Guardian of the Faith. But when He, the Second Guardian of the Faith, found that the violations of the Hands were at the point of causing irreparable damage to the Baha'i Faith – then he had to break with the Hands of the Faith. It was then necessary for him to make his advent as Guardian of the Faith in order to save the Faith.
Therefore when He announced to the Baha'i World, Ridvan 117 B.E., that The Beloved First Guardian of the Faith had during his lifetime appointed him, Mason Remey, the Second Guardian of the Faith, he – for the preservation of the Faith – broke all connections with the violating Hands of the Faith and now for the safety of the Faith, he is telling and explaining to the Baha'i world the things that the Hands of the Faith have been perpetrating against the Faith; namely their attempt to do away with the Administrative-Guardianship of the Faith, the foundation of which was given to the First Guardian of the Faith, and to the Baha'i world in the will and testament of Abdu’l-Baha upon which foundation Shoghi Effendi inaugurated the Administration that the Hands of the Cause are violating.
ANNOUNCEMENT
This volume is one of a series of treatises- - of nine or ten or more in all- -each of which is printed in a very small edition of but fifteen copies. These writings are not intended for general circulation at this present time (1960 A.D.), but have been prepared especially to be placed in a few important libraries at home and abroad. They consequently will be available to readers and will be preserved for future generations as a record of conditions that exist now and things that are at hand and taking place among the followers of the Baha’i World Faith- -the Universal World Religious Movement that of recent years has been spreading in many of the countries of the world but that now, at this time, is threatened by internal forces of disruption, the causes for which are shown and discussed in this series of theses. This volume contains one of these several arguments and is written, arranged, and bound in this form personally by the present “Second Guardian” as Head of the Baha’i World Faith, and who, at present, is living in the city of Washington in America in voluntary and temporary exile from his home upon Mount Carmel in the Holy Land.
The libraries at home and abroad where these volumes can shortly be found are registered upon the accompanying listing. In order to facilitate their indexing in these several libraries, the Library catalogue cards are accompanying each volume now being sent forth by- -
Mason Remey,
Guardian
of the Baha’i Faith
From P.O. Box 418
Washington 4, D.C., U.S.A.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The transportation of these volumes from Washington, D.C. to the foreign libraries listed has been gratuitously undertaken by the International Exchange Service of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D.C. For this favor, the author and donor of these volumes here expresses his sincere appreciation.
The Libraries:
Bibliothèque Royale - - Bruxelles, Belgium
The Library of the
Free University of Berlin - - Berlin-Dahlem, Germany
Library of the British Museum - - London, England
The Bodleian Library - - Oxford, England
Bibliothèque Nationale - - Paris, France
State Archives and Library - - Hakirya, Jerusalem
Israel
Library of the United Nations - - Geneva, Switzerland
Public Library of
New South Wales - - Sydney, Australia
In the United States of America these treatises will
be found in:
The Library of Congress - - Washington, D.C.
The New York City Public
Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue - - New York
and in libraries in a few other cities.
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