Memorandum
To: The Universal House of Justice
Date: 12 January 2006
From: Research Department
Letters written on Behalf of the Guardian
In an email letter of 23 July 2005 addressed to the
Universal House of Justice, Mr. _ poses a number of questions concerning the
degree of authority to be accorded to the letters written on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi and to the memoranda prepared by the Research Department, and he
enquires whether all statements in the Writings should be accepted as being
"based in fact, unless explicitly stated as being conditioned on other
information.” The Research Department has studied the issues raised by Mr. and
we offer the following comments.
Reference is made to statements on the Internet which apparently infer that the Guardian discontinued the practice of reviewing all letters written on his behalf when the amount of correspondence increased. Mr. _ seeks confirmation of the fact that Shoghi Effendi continued to review all letters written on his behalf until the end of his life. The Research Department sets out below the only information it has, to date, been able to locate on this subject.
In a postscript appended to a letter dated 7 December 1930, written on his behalf to an individual believer, Shoghi Effendi described the normal procedure he followed in dealing with correspondence written on his behalf:
“I wish to add and say that whatever letters are sent in my behalf from Haifa are all read and approved by me before mailing. There is no exception whatever to this rule.”
Given the Guardian’s categorical assertion, it follows that any “exception” to "this rule" would require his explicit permission. For example, in the latter years of his ministry, Shoghi Effendi assigned to the Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas the special responsibility for monitoring the progress of the goals of the Ten Year Crusade. In implementing this specific function, Mr. Ioas worked under the close supervision of the Guardian; however, not all of his letters — for example, those simply requesting information about the goals — were viewed by Shoghi Effendi before being transmitted.