In the Guardian's own handwriting:
The work now engaging the attention of the members of the Baha'i Communities in India, Pakistan and Burma, as it develops and is further consolidated, acquires momentous importance, and should be pursued with added zeal, ever deepening consecration, firmer unity, closer collaboration, greater vigilance and nobler self-sacrifice. The sufferings and trials they have recently experienced, the disappointments and anxieties they have borne, the obstacles and setbacks they have encountered in their path, should, far from causing them to flinch in their determination or to relax in their efforts, act as a stimulant and challenge, to scale loftier heights, and win mightier victories in their strenuous labours for the propagation of their beloved Faith. Though they are pressed by the multitudinous demands of an ever-growing task, though overburdened by the manifold responsibilities of an ever-expanding administration, I have, in my desire to enable them to enrich the splendid record of their stewardship to the Faith in recent years, and enhance the prestige of all three communities, urged them to push still further the outposts of the Faith, both southward and eastward of the present field of their joint labours. In the island of Ceylon, the Republic of Indonesia and the sovereign State of Siam, which due to their proximity must, sooner or later be opened up to the Faith by these Communities, an effort, however tentative, must be made to establish a nucleus, through the settlement of one or two pioneers which will, as Plans are initiated in the years to come, develop into full-fledged communities capable of illuminating the eastern and southern fringes of the continent of Asia.
Through the successful conclusion of this added task to be shouldered by these communities, the believers in these three communities will have contributed, to a marked degree, to the raising to one hundred of the number of countries included within the pale of the ever-advancing Faith of Baha'u'llah. They will be emulating the example of their American, Canadian and Persian brethren, who, through their respective plans, are hastening this glorious consummation by initiating Baha'i activities in Latin America, in Greenland and New Foundland and the territories of the Arabian Peninsula.
Their solid achievements in recent years, the marvellous multiplication of Baha'i Centres, the establishment of befitting national headquarters, the remarkable impetus lent to the translation, publication and dissemination of Baha'i Literature, embolden me to appeal to them, to undertake fresh enterprises, ere the termination of the present Plan, and on however small a scale, beyond the confines of India and Burma.
The greater the range of their collective enterprises, the mightier the effusion of the Abha grace from on high, a grace that will sustain, protect, guide and cheer them as they tread the stormy yet glorious path of service for the furtherance of their beloved Cause.
Let them, at this momentous stage of their historic labours, eliminate, once and for all, every trace of inharmony from their midst, purge their hearts from every lingering suspicion, prejudice and animosity, acquire a clearer vision of the greatness of their Faith and the significance of their mission, give heed to the urgent and tragic needs of the vast multitudes of their disillusioned and sore-tried countrymen, now hungering for the Bread of Life, and arise, as one man, to discharge their sacred and inescapable responsibilities. The hour is propitious, the situation critical, the Cause infinitely precious, the prize within reach and inexpressibly glorious.
May 8, 1948