RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1234, 16 September 1911, Page 11

RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS.

FOR ENGLISH-SPEAKING WOMEN,

Through the initiative, pluck, and perseverance of a woman the one thing wanting in the Cecil, Rhodes Foundation for international scholarships has been provided for in the echciuo for extending such advantages to the women of nil English-speaking peoples, originated by Mts. K. Thayer, of tho .United States of America, says an editorial in an English Saper. For.sixteen long years this gifted, evoted woman has been working out her, interne for the higher education of English-speaking women as a bond between the Anslc-Saxon peoples 'of the world, and now that' it has received the hearty endorsement and active assistance of the League of Empire,' and the approval of the trustees of the Rhodes Foundation, it se,ems likely to be soon put in operation. As a matter of fact, one woman student is already at Oxford, having taken tho post-graduate course thoro last year, 'and is now intending ■ to begin a special term at tho School of Economics in-tho autumn. What it Offers. In brief outline the now scheme seeks to supplement the Imperial plan of tho Ehodes Foundation by offering similar scholarships to suitable and eelected women from tho British colonies and the United States. They differ from the Ehodes scholarships in that they nre fcpst-graduato, and tenable for two years nt either Oxford, Cambridge, or London, according as- tho student prefers. Further, the age limits differ, being from twenty-five to thirty years. .Tho foundress lias fixod. these limits s with a view to obtaining women who are'not too young to appreciate the full benefits derivable, and not too old to have lost the power of responding to new impressions or.coming under new influences. Each student is to have i£3ofl a year on which to live, study, and acquire useful experience. This seems rather an unnecessarily large allowance, but Mrs. Thayor defends it on the grounds that tho women students should be placed on an equally good footing as the Rhodes malo scholars; tnat the student should not be worried about making ends meet when she is giving her heart and soul to study; that it is not enough for her merely to attend university lectures'and sit in libraries and etudy, but that she should be able to participate iu the living thought of tho nation, see the-pictures, attend tho theatres, hear tho music, and go into society, and learn the true character of h«r environment and associations in the Old Country. rfoth .Sexes Must Advance, Another and a very forcible reason for incurring this expensive course of higher education is that it is intended that these wemen students when they return honve should lecture and teach, and not. merely use their knowledge as a mean of "getting on" in lifc.'as most of,the young men do who benefit by the Rhodes scholarships. It is expected ef the young women that they will thus teach a far ividor portion of the young folk of their native land, while probably many of thsm will marry and become the mothers of a new race, in tho early training of which.lies the hope of advancement and the ultimate brotherhood of all the Eng-lish-speakine peoples. According to Mrs. Thayer,* had Cecil Rhodes lived long enough to complete his grand scheme ho must have recognised that it is not in the order of moving things for- one-half to ewing forward without the other; that ■women, by their greater enthusiasm, receptivity, adaptability, and optimism, aro better Qualified than men for this work, for no nation rises higher than its mothers. .If the educated elasjes of such ' a country as .the United States aspire ever more and more to the culture, the traditions, and the social characteristics of Europe generally, and England in par- ■ tieular, .should not those of the Englishspeaking nations still forming part ef the British Empire desiro them equally, »r eren more? This is, we think, tie «se, and/much as we desire the ckser association 'of our Yankee cousins in all tha. higher things of life, wo would still mj>r« wish to Sμ the bonds of intellectual life, of a common literature, history, and art, drawn over closer , between;;'the; British colonies and the Mother Country.'" "■•'■'<■ A World-Wide Scheme. . ' This, then, is the ambitious bnt thoroughly practical , scheme now being put before tho public of tho English6poaking world by the League of Empire through ■ a enb-coinmittec, of which Mra. Thayer is chairman. The committee is appealing for the co-operation of all men and women interested in educational matters to form committees to carry out the work in all those countries which now Bend scholars to British universities under the terms of Mr. Rhodes's will. These local committees.are each to nominate a representative to serva oh the centre committee in London. The scholarships ■ may be endowed either by the.State, by newspapers, "or by individual or public subscriptions in the respective countries to which the local committees bslong; thus the whole English-sneaking world is invited, to share in the labours and success of this purely patriotic and truly philanthropic., movement. This scholarship scheme for wonien should appeal both to)men and women, to scholars and pioneers, to home dwellers arid rich colonials, to lovers of peace and supporters of Empire, to local patriots and to believers in .international brotherhood. It .is ■primarily "a woman's movement, but ultimately it is one for the benefit of everybody living in the English-speaking countries of America, Asia, Australia, aud Africa—from the United States and Can- . Ada to the youngest colony which has eprung from Anglo-Saxon stock, and it ( deserves the support of those who believe that the dominance of that race is calculated to do good and not harm to all the other races of the world with which accident or design, Nature or Providence, has brought it into contact.