Major Tudor Pole's Cable from Jerusalem

In its issue dated the eighth of June 1918 the Star of the West gave its readers a piece of news both alarming and hopeful. Major Wellesley Tudor Pole, the British Bahá'í then serving in the Intelligence section of the British military in Egypt and Palestine, had sent a cable to the American National Spiritual Assembly. The cable advised that 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His household, then resident in Haifa under nominal Ottoman authority, were in personal danger from the retreating Turkish forces. The Ottoman commander at Haifa was reported to be considering a deportation of the Bahá'í household, or worse, before the British advance reached the city.

Tudor Pole had moved at once. He had taken the matter to the highest levels of the British command. He had impressed on his superiors — including the Earl of Balfour, then British Foreign Secretary — that the safety of the head of the Bahá'í Faith was a matter of international religious significance and that the British army was being given an opportunity to render to the Faith a service the Faith would never forget.

Notify the British Commander at once: the safety of 'Abdu'l-Bahá is the safety of the Cause.

The phrase was Tudor Pole's own, set down in the cable he had sent to his American colleagues asking them to add their voice. The British command had taken the matter seriously. General Allenby, then commanding the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, had given the personal direction that the Bahá'í household at Haifa was to be treated as under British protection. When the British forces entered Haifa in late September of 1918, one of their first acts had been to call at the Master's house and to assure Him that He was now under their protection.

The American friends, when the news of the protection reached them, were greatly relieved. The Star's report of June 1918 had asked them to pray; the report in October of the same year would tell them that the prayer had been answered. 'Abdu'l-Bahá would, in the years immediately following, write a careful letter of thanks to the British authorities; the British Crown would, in 1920, knight the Master in recognition of His humanitarian services through the war.

The small chain of action — Tudor Pole's cable; the American prayers; Allenby's directive; the British troops at the Master's door — had been worked out across the war years through the patient correspondence and personal advocacy of a few committed friends. The Star of the West's June notice gave the friends, in real time, the chance to take their own small part in the chain.

Source: Star of the West, Volume 9, Issue 5 (June 8, 1918), report on the cable from Major Wellesley Tudor Pole regarding the protection of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Public domain text from bahai-library.com.

Editors, S. O. T. W.. (1918). *Star of the West*. Bahai News Service. https://bahai-library.com/star_of_the_west_volume_9