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1930-08-30 response to individual re History Society

USBN #46 - November 1930 - page 9

Letter from the Guardian, Through His Secretary, to a Believer of Yonkers, N.Y.

"A year ago, Mrs. Chanler wrote Shoghi Effendi of her plan to work

independently of the Assembly. In answer he expressed his disapproval in a most

unquestionable term. In the letters and cables that Mrs. Chanler wrote subsequent

to that, Shoghi Effendi expressed the same view again. He knew that for a body to

defy the Assembly is contrary to the best interests of the Cause; that not only

will conflict arise but it will react unfavorably in other parts of the world.

"Some persons in the (United) States feel that the History Society was badly

represented to Shoghi Effendi. The source of all our information is the writings

of Ahmad, and the publications of that group. In all his circular letters he

harped on the note of freedom, and denounced the red tape that characterizes

organizations. Freedom, which Ahmad reiterates...is not a bad thing if considered

in view of the interpretation that Baha'u'llah gives in the Aqdas. (See quotation

No. 1, above - Editor). The freedom that He commends is a freedom which is a fruit

and result of law and proper administration. The other kind of freedom which is in

defiance of law He considers to be animal, and far from being of any good to man.

He says, "True freedom is in obedience to My law.'

"No one wrote to Shoghi Effendi against the History Society; it is Ahmad's

reports that caused Shoghi Effendi's mistrust. This literature has not had this

effect only on Shoghi Effendi but also on the friends of Australia and New

Zealand. In the last two weeks we have had two letters from prominent and firm

Baha'is of New Zealand and Australia who referred to the History Society and its

literature with greatest disapprobation, and with great astonishment that nothing

is being done.

"The Cause is an international institution. Every act done in one Center

will have some reaction in some other locality. What if the spirit that Ahmad

preaches should be practised in its full? The whole Cause will as a result be

destroyed."

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