Yeshua

I never noticed this before but don't you think that the League of Nations symbol officially adopted in 1939 looks conceptionally similar to the Baha'i five-pointed star? It is nearly the EXACT symbol! It has a five-pointed star just like the Baha'y symbol - it is a pentagon just like the Baha'i symbol!

They symbolized the Earth's five continents and five races - which seems like quite a Baha'i sentiment to me.

whine of astonsihment

I think you will find more and more of these 'interesting coincidences' as time goes on.
It took my breath away when the Russians presented a 'test coin' to the economic summit to promote the idea of a universal currency and it had "Unity in Diversity" stamped on it.

Yeshua

Now that's a corcker!

If anybody has spotted any other of these 'interesting coincidences' please go ahead and post them here!

arthra

To her President, the immortal Woodrow Wilson, must be ascribed the unique honor, among the statesmen of any nation, whether of the East or of the West, of having voiced sentiments so akin to the principles animating the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, and of having more than any other world leader, contributed to the creation of the League of Nations -- achievements which the pen of the Center of God's Covenant acclaimed as signalizing the dawn of the Most Great Peace, whose sun, according to that same pen, must needs arise as the direct consequence of the enforcement of the laws of the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh.

(Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 36)

Yeshua

I studied the birth of the League of Nations when I was at school, in the context of Germany from 1919-1939. Some historians argue that if Woodrow Wilson's '14 Points' had been properly and fully put into place at the end of World War 1 then it would have prevented the rise of the Nazis. Apparently Germans celebrated when they heard Wilson's points and thought that it meant Germany would not be treated like a shamed, defeated rat but as an equal power and would not have all of its land stripped away, with the exception of the pieces of land which it had unjustly occupied before and during the war under the Kaiser. However Wilson's principles were not implemented; and it is often said that the subsequent Treaty of Versailles was too harsh and one of the main causes of World War 2, in that Hitler was able to manipulate the masses into thinking that he was simply tearing up an unjust, terribly harsh treaty and restoring Germany to her greatness - rather than being a insane psychopath hell-bent on world domination and the destruction of 'sub-humans' or untermenschen.

The Treaty of Versailles was never ratified by the US Senate because it diverged so far from the Fourteen Points. It also interesting to note that although Wilson was the father and founder of the League of Nations, America never joined the League. This I think is telling.

It is an interesting thought.

Wilson's 14 points were (in SUMMARY form):

1.Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at.
2.Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed
3.The removal of all economic barriers, and establishment of equality of trade.
4.Guarantees that national armaments will be reduced.
5.Adjustment of colonial claims, that in determining all such questions of sovereignty, the interests of the people concerned must have equal weight with the claims of the government whose title is to be determined.
6.Russian territory should be evacuated, and Russia welcomed into the society of free nations.
7.Belgium should be evacuated and restored.
8.All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored.
9.The frontiers of Italy should be readjusted along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
10.The peoples of Austria-Hungary should have the freest opportunity to independent development.
11.Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated and restored, Serbia should have free and secure access to the sea, and the relations of the several Balkan states to each other should be determined by friendly counsel, and political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be internationally guaranteed.
12.The Turkish portion of the Ottoman Empire should have a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are under Turkish rule should have an undoubted security of life and an opportunity of independent development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as passage to the ships and commerce of all nations.
13.An independent Polish state should be elected including the territories inhabited by Polish populations, which should have free access to the sea.
14.The League of Nations should be formed.

Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his peace-making efforts.

maryam

Where can I find the persian translation of this letter of Shoghi Effendi: " To America's President, Woodrow Wilson , must be ascribed the unique honor.......