I particularly welcome the establishment of this highly important institution in the capital city of Japan, as it affords a splendid opportunity for the diffusion of the Lights of the Faith, and the erection of the structure of its Administrative Order, among a people representing the overwhelming majority of the yellow race, living in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and in a country regarded as one of the strongholds of the Buddhist Faith. I feel a warm tribute should be paid, on this historic occasion, to the members of the American Bahá’í Community, as well as to their elected national representatives, who have, for so long and so devotedly, promoted the interests of the Faith in that country, and, in recent years in its neighbouring islands. I call upon the Regional Spiritual Assembly now being formed to signalize its birth through the initiation of a subsidiary Six-Year Plan, designed to swell the number of the adherents of the Faith throughout the area of its jurisdiction; to multiply the groups, the isolated centers and the local spiritual assemblies; to incorporate all firmly grounded local spiritual assemblies; to obtain recognition from the civil authorities for the Bahá’í Marriage Certificate, as well as the Bahá’í Holy Days; to inaugurate a national Bahá’í Fund; to consolidate the work initiated in the newly opened territories; to lend an impetus to the translation, the publication, and dissemination of Bahá’í Literature in divers languages; to establish Summer Schools, and Bahá’í burial grounds; to propagate the Faith throughout the smaller islands of Japan; and to acquire a plot to serve as the site of the first Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár of North-East Asia. May the blessings of Bahá’u’lláh be showered, in an ever-increasing measure, on those newly emerged Communities now holding aloft, so steadfastly and so valiantly, the banner of His Faith, and may the outcome of their collective efforts illuminate its annals, and contribute to a notable degree to the consolidation of the institutions of the Bahá’í embryonic World Order now being erected throughout the length and breadth of so vast, so turbulent, and yet so promising, an area of the globe. Shoghi (April 1957) [Photograph with the following caption:] The first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North East Asia elected in 1957. Sitting: Mr. Noureddin Momtazi, Miss Agnes Alexander, Mrs. Barbara Sims, Mr. Hiroyasu Takano. Standing: Mr. Ataullah Moghbel, Mr. Michitoshi Zenimoto, Mr. Philip Marangella, Mr. Yadollah Rafaat, and Mr. William Maxwell. [Cable of April 29, 1957] Shoghi Effendi’s cable to the first Convention of North East Asia: Deeply appreciate message welcome dedication delegates tasks ahead fervently supplicating richest blessings. Deepest love, Shoghi (April 29, 1957) TO NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES To the National Spiritual Assembly of North East Asia—1957 [Cable dated May 2, 1957]