THE Ninteenth Universal Congress of Esperanto in Danzig Free City, July 28 to August 3, 1927, was remarkably successful. One thousand delegates came from thirty-five countries; this was Jubilee year of this international language. If one considers the slowness of progress in evolution, forty years is not a long time in comparison with the development of mankind, yet in this short space, Esperanto has almost conquered the world. The Pyramids of Egypt have remained silent forty centuries! What may not be accomplished if for forty centuries Esperanto, this universal language, calls aloud to international understanding!
There were greetings and salutations by representatives of governments, state ministers sent by kings, but the message from Shoghi Effendi was considered by all who know the Bahá’í Movement as the most important, standing above that of kings and statesmen, because it was a message of a spiritual movement which is the most perfect realization of the Esperanto idea, and of which the Esperanto idea is one part. Like Esperanto, the Bahá’í Movement is super-national, super-religious. It is the spirit of brotherhood of which Esperanto is the language of communication. Universal brotherhood needs a universal language and Esperanto is this language. The greetings from Shoghi Effendi, great-grand-son of Bahá’u’lláh who, more than fifty years ago prophesied and commanded a universal language, was most impressive. No king, no minister of any government can compete with the representative of the spiritual reign founded by Bahá’u’lláh—this spirit of universal love and unity which lies in the Bahá’í Movement. His letter which was read to one thousand delegates at the formal opening of the Congress is as follows:
Haifa, Palestine, April 17, 1927.
To the delegates and friends attending the Nineteenth Universal Congress of Esperanto:
My dear fellow-workers in the service of humanity:
I take great pleasure in addressing you, on the occasion of the opening of the Nineteenth Universal Congress of Esperanto in Danzig, and in wishing you from all my heart the fullest success in the great work you are doing for the promotion of the good of humanity.
It will interest you, I am sure, to learn, that as the result of the repeated and emphatic admonitions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His many followers even in the distant villages and hamlets of Persia, where the light of Western civilization has hardly penetrated as yet, as well as in other lands throughout the East, are strenuously and enthusiastically engaged in the study and teaching of Esperanto, for whose future they cherish the highest hopes.
I am voicing the sentiments of the unnumbered followers of the Faith throughout the world, when I offer you through this letter, the cordial expression of our sincere best wishes and fervent prayers for the success of your noble end.
Yours faithfully,
Shoghi.
Another interesting feature was the planting of the oak tree in a new square which has been named “Esperanto Ground.” Esperantists were all invited to bring earth from their homelands for this ceremony. Nearly all of the thousand delegates brought their national earths as a symbol of the oneness of mankind and the internationality of this language. The writer had requested and received earth from the Tombs of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa and ‘Akká, Palestine, sent by the Greatest Holy Leaf,
