The doubling of the number of delegates to the next Bahá’í national convention will eloquently testify to this remarkable growth and rapid consolidation of the community you are privileged to serve and direct. The interests of the Austrian Bahá’í community should, while the work is steadily progressing in Germany, be vigilantly and determinedly promoted. Through guidance, assistance, encouragement, frequent visits when ever possible, the community of the believers in Austria should be nursed and prepared to discharge befittingly its sacred responsibilities, until such time, as has been the case with Canada, as it can elect its own national assembly and assume independent existence within the world-wide Bahá’í community. At this propitious moment in the evolution of the Faith in your country, at a time when the American, the British, the Indian, the Persian, the Australian, the Canadian and Iráqí national Bahá’í communities are busily engaged in prosecuting specially conceived Plans for the systematic propagation of the Faith within their respective countries and beyond their confines, it is only fitting for a community as old and honoured as yours, which has survived such cruel blows, which occupies so enviable a position in the heart of Europe, the recipient of so great a measure of bounty and loving-kindness from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to formulate its own Plan, preferably a five year Plan, destined to culminate in 1953, the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission in the Síyáh-_Ch_ál of Ṭihrán. As to the objectives of the Plan, in both Germany and Austria, I feel that your assembly should carefully consider them, and after mature deliberation announce them to the believers and ensure, by every means in its power, the attainment of every goal you set yourselves to achieve. The launching of such a Plan, after the consolidation of the institutions of the Faith, during the three years that have elapsed since the termination of the war, will constitute a landmark in the history of the Faith in that country, and will, no doubt act as a tremendous magnet, drawing the blessings of Bahá’u’lláh, and contributing, to an unprecedented degree, to the establishment of His Cause in the heart of Europe. I long to hear the joyful tidings announcing the formulation and inauguration of such a Plan, which will greatly stimulate the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in East and West, and enrich the annals of His Faith during the opening decade of the second Bahá’í century. May the Spirit of our beloved Master, watching from on high over the destinies of this highly promising, this richly endowed community, enable it to usher in this new phase of internal development of His Father’s Faith in that country, in a manner that will redound to the fame and glory of His German-speaking followers. Shoghi LETTER OF 28 MAY 1948 28 May 1948 DEEPLY APPRECIATE MESSAGE DELIGHTED PROGRESS URGE PERSEVERANCE FERVENTLY PRAYING GREATER VICTORIES. SHOGHI