Owing to passport difficulties Shoghi Effendi cabled Haifa
he could not arrive until the end of the month. He sailed from England on 16
December, accompanied by Lady Blomfield and Rouhangeze, and arrived in Haifa by
train at 5.20 P.M. on 29 December from Egypt where his boat from England had
docked. Many friends went to the station to bring him home; it is reported he
was so overcome on his arrival that he had to be assisted up the steps.
Awaiting him in the house was the only person who could in any measure assuage
his suffering - his beloved great-aunt, the sister of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. She had
already - so frail, so quiet, so modest at all times - shown herself in these
past weeks to be a strong rock to which the believers clung in the midst of the
tempest that had so suddenly burst upon them. The calibre of her soul, her
breeding, her station, fitted her for the role she played in the Cause and in
Shoghi Effendi's life during this extremely difficult and dangerous period.
- Ruhiyyih Khanum (‘The Priceless Pearl’)
