RHODES SCHOLARS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 221, 18 September 1928, Page 11

RHODES SCHOLARS

AMERICAN HOLDERS’ GIFT AN ENDOWMENT FOE OXFORD. The Association of American Rhodes Scholars has delivered to the Bank of Manhattan, the oldest bank in Pit United States, a trust deed which is to lay the foundation of an American endowment for the ancient British seat of learning at Oxford, where they have been educated through the gift of the late Air Cecil Rhodes. There arc now between 600 and 700 Rhodes Scholars in the United States. Their association hopes to be joined in its efforts by those who feel that American higher education has benefited from the traditions of Oxford, by American descendants of Oxford men, and by others interested in closer union between the two English-speaking poo pies. At a recent meeting of the Harvard Club, a permanent Rhodes Scholars Alumni Association was organised, and the trust was approved. The income from the endowment will be devoted to the establishment of sscholarships, exchange professorships, purchase of land and erection cf buildings. contributions to special funds, and possibly to supplement the payment by the Rhodes Trust to future Rhodes Sscholars, which was recently raised from £3OO to £4OO. A modern feature of the new trust is provision for insuring the lives of Rhodes Scholars. An effort will be made to have on hand, 25 years hence, a substantial sum to commemorate the centonauy of the birth of Cecil Rhodes.

It is interesting to note that the forebears of two prominent Americans living when the bank was founded in 1799—George Washington and John Adams —were Oxford men. Lawrence Washington, great-great-grandfather of tho first president of the United States, entered Brascnose College, Oxford, in 1619; thirty years later, Thomas Adams, great-grandfather of President Adams, entered the same college. President Adams was at the White House when the Bank of Manhattan began business.