Testimonial letter from Ian Bale
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Ian Bale. It is "Exhibit A-1084" in the Noles collection.
The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has one page.
 IAN BALE di(?)ch. r.i.b.a., m.s.a.i. To whom it may concern, I understand that the visa granted to Bhaghwan Shree Rajneesh by the American immigration office is due to expire during the course of this year, I also understa that during this year only, preference for the renewal of visas is to be given to visitors from the Asian continent under the present quota system. If this is the case then I think it would be a pity if Bhaghwan Shree Rajneesh were not allowed to remain at RajneeshCity. I believe that this man represents one of the greatest hopes for peace in our time and amongst future generations of the free world. Whether he is regarded as a religious leader or a philosopher he has created an international following of young people and old who are happy contented and committed to a totally peaceful way of life. His message cuts across all barriers of age, race and politics If for no other reason his continued presence in Oregon can only continue to promote international peace, goodwill and understanding and must in the long term contribute immeasurably to the traditions of which America has been justly proud throughout the ages. [signed] |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
