MILNER MEMORIAL

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18676, 27 April 1926, Page 10

MILNER MEMORIAL

SCHOLARSHIP FUND TO BE RAISED. STUDY OF THE EMPIRE. IMEciai. to "thi mess.") WELLINGTON, April 26. The Right Hon. the Prime .Minister has received a communication from the High Commissioner, with reference to an appeal being made for the Alilner Memorial Fund. A small committee, ot vhich Lord Balfour lias been chairman, and .Mr L. t>. Amery, Secretary of State lor Dominion Atiairs, vice-chairman, nus lor some mouths ucen considering, on benali of a larger committee, comprising most men in public mo in tlie cnnt'u Kingdom, what would be the most appropriate way ot honouring the late Lord .miner's memory, 'i'lie conclusion arrived at was tiiat a system of travelling and research fellowships and prizes for the study of questions connected with Empire development auu social amelioration would be most appropriate, not only because he regarded these two groups of questions as inseparably connected, and believed that their successful solution depended on study and the dissemination of more accurate knowledge, but also because he himself owed all his chances early in life to the scholarships he won, and was always tremendously interested in helping forward younger men and giving them a chance. The scheme will be a very elastic one, including at the one end of the scale travelling fellowships costing up to £ooo k year for students visiting the Dominions, and devoting themselves to some special branch of economics study, and on the other hand comparatively small prizes to stimulate interest, and sufficient just to help a poor student through his course, ot to enable a young author to get a book published, which might not otherwise find its publisher. The committee is very anxious to raise a really large fund, and to secure support from every part of the Empire, and it is hoped tliat the idea of the scheme will commend itself. The first few hundred pounds of the fund raised will be devoted to an appropriate memorial tablet in Westminster Abbey. Open to Dominion Students. It was further stated that.at a meeting of the Executive Committee the question of eligibility to the prizes and fellowships was raised, and that all agreed that there would be no limitation to residents in the United Kingdom, but that the idea would be to encourage the study of Empire and social questions as far as the money available would permit by students from , every part of the Empire. The Right Hon. the Prime Minister feels that the object for which the money is Being raised will appeal to many New Zealauders, and has therefore given instructions that facilities should be given for those wlio wish to contribute to the fund to forward their donations to the Department of Internal Affairs for remission to the High Commissioner, who will pay the amounts ov<jr to the trustees of the fund in Great Britain.