Dear Baha'i friends,
In December 1967 the Universal House of Justice wrote to all National Spiritual Assemblies requesting them to send to the World Centre originals or photocopies of letters from the beloved Guardian, or written on his behalf, and addressed to Baha'i institutions or individual believers. The response to this request and to one issued in May 1975 was encouraging, but it is now clear that the originals and photocopies held at the World Centre represent only a portion of the letters the Guardian is known to have written.
The House of Justice is eager to pursue, as swiftly as possible, the task of tracing such vitally important documents, and has therefore given the Archives Office the urgent duty of collecting information which will enable it to work towards the completion of the collection held at the World Centre.
In order to avoid giving institutions and believers a great deal of unnecessary labour, the Archives Office will be directing letters with specific guidelines to certain National Assemblies and individuals who are known to have received large numbers of letters from the Guardian, sending a list of the letters of which originals or satisfactory photocopies are already held at the World Centre. The recipient will then be able to check whether he has any which have not been supplied to the World Centre.
National Assemblies which have in their national archives only a small number of letters written by the Guardian, or on his behalf, could assist greatly by sending to the Archives Office at the World Centre immediately a list of such letters, specifying in each case the name of the addressee and the date.
Although the majority of National Spiritual Assemblies have come into being since the passing of Shoghi Effendi, they may well have within their jurisdiction Local Spiritual Assemblies and individual believers who corresponded with the Guardian, or the children and grandchildren of such believers, who may have the letters in their possession. Therefore, all National Spiritual Assemblies are asked to publish a statement in their newsletters, requesting all Local Spiritual Assemblies and individuals who have in their possession original letters from the Guardian, or written on his behalf, to notify the World Centre of that fact either directly or through their National Assembly. They should be asked to state the number of letters that they have and, if these are only a few, to list the date and the exact name of the addressee of each one.
In this announcement the National Assembly should stress the point made in earlier appeals: that any such letter is the property of the person to whom the beloved Guardian wrote, and that that person is perfectly entitled to keep the original or to pass it down in his family. He does not have to give it up to any Baha'i Archives. In such a case, however, the Archives needs to have a good photocopy, and arrangements will be made for this to be done. Alternatively, if the individual wishes to give the original document into the safekeeping of the Archives, but would like to have a photocopy, this can be sent to him. It should also be mentioned that whenever the contents of a letter are seen to be confidential that confidentiality is respected.
Since many believers may have already sent such letters to their National Archives, National Assemblies are requested to send to the World Centre a list of the names of those persons and other institutions, such as committees, for whom they hold originals or photocopies. This list will be checked here and the Archives Office will write in due course to inquire further as appears necessary.
In closing, the House of Justice asks us to stress that it is not asking for any of the Guardian's letters to be sent now. It merely wishes to collect information so that the Archives Office can systematically work to trace those letters which are lacking from the World Centre collection.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
Department of the Secretariat
(‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)
