Via Malencini 6 - Florence, Italy
Thursday, 24 July, 1975

My dear Leland Jensen:

I have just finished reading your letter of July 19th and must confess,
what it contained troubled me not a little for if there is anything on this
earth I do not want, it is to be responsible in any way at all in adding
further turmoil and anxieties to the Baha'i friends over the question of
successor to the Guardianship.

[...]

I was not a declared Baha'i at that time but enjoyed his complete
confidence.  When he asked me to make my home with him in order to care for
him and to manage things for him, I was totally and absolutely convinced of
his Misson in the Baha'i Faith and gave my wholehearted support and
embraced the Baha'i Faith fully.  Mason's dream was that I would succeed
him even though I have always refused to accept such a thought from him.
He made his appointment of Joel in a sealed letter only because he was
afraid
that he might die unexpectedly.  Then later, you will remember, he
appointed some of the elders who might take over the Guardianship should
the Great Global Catastrophe come about and people would be dispersed for
some time.  In order to secure the continuation of the Guardianship, he
made sure there would be several possible successors.  You see, Dr.
Jensen, Mason was more interested in securing the successorship than of
the successor himself.  The conditions under which he lived forced him to
make the many steps he took and thus a great cunfusion ensued as a result.
However, Donald Harvey has received from me a statement in Mason's hand in
which he repudiated his appointment of Joel as his successor back in
1963.... that is soon after we met with Joel here.  I will not go into the
reasons Mason gave me.  Many things are best left unsaid.  At that time, he
listed three persons as his successor.......I will not tell you the
sequence of the three names...but I will tell you that my name appeared on
that list along with Donald Harvey's and Joel's (Joel's name was the last
one on the list, so that confirms that even back in 1963 Mason had changed
his mind about Joel.  I tell you all this only to give my own reasons why I
cannot nor ever can in the future accept Joel as Mason's successor.

[...] Spiritually, I confess, I have never given up the Baha'i Faith.  I
practice no other religion nor have I since first accepting the Baha'i
Teachings through Mason Remey. [...]

I'm sorry there has been such a confusion about Mason's medallions.  The
one he always wore around his neck, I myself am wearing at this moment.  I
treasure that.  He removed it from his own neck several weeks before
dying.  It seemed to burden him to wear it.  Yet, he would never be without
it in previous times.  One of the larger medalions he had made (Silver with
gold-plate) I placed in his coffin along with a small vial of attar of
roses and a Baha'i prayer book and a photograph of the two of us.  It is so
sad even to remember!  The other ones (I believe I have a photograph of
Mason wearing the one you were particularly interested in).....are surely
amongst the things he left me.  There are several religious, patriotic and
social orders he belonged to and he had several medals, etc.  If that is
the medal you refer to, he never told me to give it to anyone.  That one or
anything else.  I did ask him to give his Baha'i ring to Jacques
Soghomonian because Jacques was ever so generous with us during the last
years of Mason's life and our needs grew beyound our means.  Mason would
probably not have made that jesture but I asked him to do so and he agreed
and during Jacques's last visit Mason himself put his Baha'i ring on
Jacque's
finger (but that had no meaning other than simply showing our appreciation
for Jacques' generosity.)  I promised Mason I would have another ring made
up for him and in fact, I did, but he never did get to wear it.

Again, dear Dr. Jensen.....please let us not add more confusion if
possible.  You are a very reasonable person and I'm sure you will
understand the many things that I have not written in this letter.  As to
my visit, unfortunately, things have not progressed as I had originally
planned and I will not want to leave here until things have been put in
very good order.  Then, I will be ready to take up my own life again.

Faithfully,    Pepe