I have received with feelings of deep satisfaction the welcome news of ... compliance with my request. I wish to impress upon all those who come in contact with her the necessity of exercising forbearance, kindness and loving consideration while adhering closely to the established principles of the Cause. I will inform you if any action is necessary regarding the martyrdom in Jahrum in Southern Persia—a monstrous crime that has deeply afflicted us all. Concerning the membership of the Spiritual Assembly, I have already communicated with America to the effect that the members who are entitled to vote must be strictly limited to nine. Additional members may attend only in a consultative capacity. I realise fully the delicacy and difficulty of your position but it must be made clear to all that nine and only nine can vote. All other subsidiary matters are left to the Assemblies. Lovingly, Shoghi Letter of 11 April 1926 11 April 1926(8) I gratefully acknowledge the receipt of the sum of seventeen pounds from my dear friends the Bahá’ís of England as their much appreciated contribution for the purchase of land around the Holy Shrines on Mt. Carmel. Shoghi Letter of 22 April 1926 22 April 1926(9) To the beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout the West. Fellow-labourers in the Divine Vineyard: In the midst of the many vicissitudes which the creative Word of God is destined to encounter in the course of its onward march towards the redemption of the world, there breaks upon us the news of still another loss, more bewildering in its character, yet more inspiring in its challenge, than any of the gravest happenings of recent times. Once again the woeful tale of unabated persecution, involving this time the martyrdom of twelve of our long-suffering brethren in Jahrum, southern Persia, has reached our ears, and filled us with a gloom which all the joys and ennobling memories of Ridván have failed to dispel. From the meagre reports which have thus far been received from that distracted country it appears that this shameful and atrocious act, though the outcome of a number of obscure and complex causes, has been chiefly instigated by that ever-present factor of fierce and relentless impulse of religious hostility. Persia—long-neglected and sorely-tried—continues, despite the revival of recent hopes, to be the down-trodden victim of unscrupulous personal rivalries and factious intrigue, of tribal revolt, political dissensions and religious animosities—all of which have in times past brought in their wake the shedding of the blood of so many of its innocent and choicest sons.