RHODES SCHOLAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 January 1926, Page 5

RHODES SCHOLAR

COMMUNISTIC PROPAGANDA.

THREAT OF EXPULSION.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (By Cable —Press Assn.—Copyright.)

(Recd. 10 a.m.)

LONDON, January 20.

A mild sensation was caused at Oxford University by the allegation that Communist propaganda was being conducted among Indian students con. cerning which, a question was recently asked in the Commons.

The upshot has been correspondence between the Vice-Chancellor, the proctors, and the Queensland Rhodes scholar, F. R. Stephenson, a second year student, wjio has also given political addresses in Yorkshire. He was .requested by the proctors to give a written guarantee within 48 hours to cease propaganda among Indians while at the University, otherwise he .would be ’’sent down.”

Stephenson signed the guarantee on Monday.

Stephenson, interviewed, said that the action of the Vice-Chancellor in compelling him to sign a promise not to endeavour to propagate Communist views, directly or indirectly, “is quite in accordance with the conservative traditions of Oxford authorities who are notorious for their resistance to new vital ideas of each succeeding generation, but the Vice-Chancellor has unlimited power. His word is law, and I had no wish suddenly to discontinue my studies for honours in the school of philosophy, politics and economics.”