He likewise feels that you have every reason to be satisfied over the progress which has been made during the first year of the Plan in settling the goals entrusted to your care. It is very unfortunate that Anticosti should prove such a hard nut to crack. He appreciates very much the determined efforts which your Body, and particularly Mr. Rakovsky(33), made to get a pioneer into it before last Ridván. No doubt eventually your efforts will be crowned with success; but you will have to be very tactful and careful in order not to arouse a permanently resistant attitude on the part of the Company that owns the Island.
In regard to the question you asked about jurisdiction, the area of jurisdiction is related to the National Spiritual Assembly responsible for the teaching work in the goal country in question, and has nothing to do with what nation the territory belongs to. All Canadian goals are therefore under the jurisdiction of your National Body, and their pioneers must report to you, and people, whose declarations are accepted, should be registered by your National Body, or the Committee in charge of the work, as the case may be.
Regarding the question as to whether your Assembly need do anything about its Israel Branch here; this is a matter which concerns entirely local procedures. Your Canadian Branch has now been legally established, and is entitled to hold property in this country; and he is planning at an early date to register a piece of land in its name. He will send you the title deed as soon as all formalities have been carried out.
As he has already informed you by cable, he feels that the land which you proposed as a Temple and National Hazíratu'l-Quds site was altogether too large, too expensive, and above all, too far from the city limits. He has given instructions to a number of other National Bodies who were pursuing their investigations in a direction much the same as your own. He realizes that it is difficult, and much more expensive, to find a plot close to the heart of the city. On the other hand, he feels that even a small plot, near to town, is much more reasonable from every standpoint than a large plot way out in the country. The friends must remember that they have to be able to get out to their National Centre and their National Temple and use them; and, as Bahá'ís are all busy, hardworking people for the most part, the time involved must inevitably influence their attendance at Bahá'í meetings in the Hazíratu'l-Quds, and later, Bahá'í services in the Temple.