RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19384, 20 July 1926, Page 13

RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS.

ANNUAL DINNER AT OXFORD. A MEMORIAL FELLOWSHIP. NEW LECTURESHIP PROPOSED. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. 1 LONDON. June IS. At the annual dinner given by the Rhodes Scholarship Trust, at Oxford, last evening, several innovations were announced by the chairman, Sir Otto Beit. The form of the reunion itself is to be changed in future years, for the number of scholars has increased to a point at which the intention of the founder can no longer be fulfilled by a single entertainment. Moreover, the completion of Rhodes House, which for the first time will provide the appropriate setting for these and other gatherings, Trill itself limit the size of any of them. The trustees have also decided to establish a Cecil Rhodes Memorial Fellowship to provide a succession of eminent lecturers of a somewhat unusual type. The chairman explained the purposes of the Rhodes House to be built in Oxford on a site in the garden of Wadham College. "It will become a permanent home for the Oxford secretary," he said. "It will further contain large, rooms, which, by a provisional arrangement with the Bodleian Library, are to house that portion of its collection of books which comprises the English-speaking library, and it is also hoped that the Beit- professor of Colonial history and the Harmsworth professor of American historv will find it possible to accept hospitality at Rhodes House for their work, lectures and their specific libraries. We propose to give the necessary rooms for that purpose.

" Then thero will bo the Great Hall, suitable for public lectures and meetings, and which, among other purposes, will in future servo as a meeting place for our annual dinners; but as it would have been impossible to build hall sufficiently big to hold such a large company as we welcome to-night, it is my sad duty to announce that this year's dinner will be the last to unite all Rhodes Scholars in residence. In future tho trustees intend to meet freshmen soon after their arrival, at dinner, or, as they did last year, to bid farewell at a dinner to the third-year men before leaving Oxford, and to take one opportunity, perhaps some afternoon in the summer term, to entertain all Rhodes Scholars. We feel that thus we shall be carrying oafc faithfully the founder's wishes, Rhodes House, we hope and trust, may become an important factor in university life. The possibilities for its usefulness are unbounded. The Now Fellowship. "The trustees hava decided to establish a Cecil Rhodes Memorial Fellowship. It is to be awarded after joint deliberation of representatives of the university and the trustees. It is to bo awarded only to a candidate—man or woman —of outstanding distinction, usually residing outside Britain, outstanding in public life, science, scholarship, letters or business. A fellow-elect would have, to undertake to give two or | more public lectures and to reside in Oxford for at least one whole term. Let no one say that there is a scanty of such people in this world, but distance and other conditions might easily make it impossible for them to visit the university except with the aid of such a fellowship. But the importance of such an appointment will be clear to you all, and the advantages in establishing close and intimate touch between such leading world lights and men residing in this university are self-evident. No time will bo lost in making the first appointment. " Other plans of varying nature, such as certain travelling fellowships to Oxford graduates engaged in college tutorial work and the possible establishment of a school for African studies at Rhodes House, are also engaging the attention of the trustees. This proposal for

specially training civil servants has the full sympathy of the Colonial Office, and, indeed, would appear to be of the greatest importance, for. should it be carried through, Rhodes House might easily become an invaluable centre for helping in the solution of those very African problems in which Cecil Rhodes himself was specially interested. It is of the essence of all these proposals that nothing has been or will be done without full discussion and agreement with the university authorities. But there is ono purpose Rhodes House is not to serve, It is not intended as a rendezvous for Rhodes Scholars." International Solidarity. Viscount Cecil, who proposed "The University and the Rhodes Scholarships," said that very near the heart of the great genius who founded the scholarships lay the conception of bringing the nations together in a closer unity. The idea was expressed in the codicil to his will, at the end of which were the words, "Educational bands make the strongest ties." That was part of what he (Lord Cecil) would call in the truest sense the new diplomacy, which stood to bring peoples into contact with peoples rather than Governments into contact with Governments.