Seven virgin territories have been opened to the Faith since the announcement on the morrow of the Ridván Festival, raising the total number of the Sovereign States and Dependencies enlisted under the banner of the Cause of God to two hundred and thirty-five. The number of the unopened territories outside of the Soviet Orbit has now shrunk to eight, namely: Spitzbergen, Anticosti Island, St. Thomas Island, Nicobar Islands, Cocos Island, Socotra Island, Loyalty Islands, and the Chagos Archipelago. The following pioneers have been inscribed on the Roll of Honor since my last sixth periodic announcement: Elizabeth Stamp, St. Helena; Mr. and Mrs. Harold Fitzner, Portuguese Timor; Elise Schreiber, Spanish Guinea; Violet Hoehnke, Admiralty Islands; Shahpoor Rowhani and Ardeshir Faroodi, Bhutan; Mehraben Sohaili, Comoro Islands; Marcia Atwater, Marshall Islands. The number of Bahá’í centers scattered over the continents and islands of the globe has now passed the three thousand mark. A contract has been signed for the purchase of a three-acre plot as the site of the first Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár of Europe, situated on a plateau near the Taunus Hills in the vicinity of the City of Frankfurt. A thirty thousand square meter property located on the banks of the Tigris has been acquired as the site of the future Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár of the Holy City of Ba_gh_dád. A plot lying in the outskirts of New Delhi has been secured at the price of a hundred thousand rupees as the site of the first Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár of the Indian sub-continent. A twelve thousand dollar plot has been bought in Johannesburg as the site of the first Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár of South Africa. A five-year Plan has been initiated in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land designed to raise twelve million tumans for the projected construction of the first Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár in the cradle of the Faith. A six thousand dollar plot has been purchased in the vicinity of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf and registered in the name of the newly established Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles. A property has been acquired opposite the Mother Temple of the West to serve as a possible site for the first Dependency of the Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár of Wilmette. A contract has been signed, pending registration of a house valued at ten thousand dollars and situated in the immediate neighborhood of the Báb’s Sepulcher, in the name of the recently established Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada. Preliminary steps have been taken for the acquisition of two plots, the one situated on the ridge of Mt. Carmel, the other to the west of the Báb’s resting-place and for their subsequent registration in the name of the Israel Branches of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of Persia and of Australia and New Zealand, respectively. A national Hazíratu’l-Quds has been purchased in Kabul and one in Johannesburg.