... I do not feel it to be in keeping with the spirit of the
Cause to impose any limitation upon the freedom of the believers to choose
those of any race, nationality or temperament who best combine the
essential qualifications for membership of administrative institutions. They
should disregard personalities and concentrate their attention on the qualities
and requirements of office, without prejudice, passion or partiality. The
Assembly should be representative of the choicest and most varied and capable elements
in every Bahá'í community ... (In the
handwriting of Shoghi Effendi, appended to a letter dated 11 August 1933
written on his behalf to an individual believer, published in "Bahá'í
Institutions (New Delhi: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1973); The Compilation of
Compilation, Vol. III, Sanctity and Nature of Baha’i Elections)
