GERMAN BENEFACTOR UNDER ARREST

Southland Times, Issue 23375, 6 December 1937, Page 5

GERMAN BENEFACTOR UNDER ARREST

ALLEGED BREACHES OF EXCHANGE LAWS

(Received December 5, 6.30 p.m.)

LONDON, December 4.

There are good reasons for believing that Herr Alfred Topfer, a merchant of Hamburg, who was the anonymous donor of the scholarships similar to the German Rhodes Scholarships, is under detention, pending inquiries, for alleged breaches of the foreign exchange regulations, says the Berlin correspondent of The Times.

Sixty other residents of Hamburg are under suspicion. The trial has already begun of Herr Arnold Bernstein, head of the Red Star Line.

As a thank offering for the German Rhodes Scholarships and the promotion of Anglo-German goodwill an anonymous German merchant founded similar scholarships, tenable in Germany. They are available to students from the Universities of Britain, and the Empire for one year of study In Germany. They are to be known as Hanseatic scholarships and are worth 3000 Reichsmarks each.

The scholarships will be awarded, without examinations, by recommendation and Interview on any subject. The founder hoped that they would further closer relations and understanding between Germany and the British Empire and promote a consciousness of European solidarity.

The same donor founded three annual prizes valued at 10,000 Reichsmarks (£1000), for Great Britain, Holland and Scandinavia for distinguished work in literature and the arts.