Rhodes scholarships and the British network of agents in the world

Rhodes was also a politician, and a global and strategic thinker. He is rightly regarded as the ideologue of British imperialism and the organizer of British colonial expansion in South Africa. One of Rhodes’ main motivations in politics and business was his strong belief that the Anglo Saxon race was ” the first race in the world” (from an 1877 letter).

Even as a young man, he harboured the idea of ​​returning North America to the bosom of the British crown and creating an Anglo Saxon superpower. This, in his opinion, would be a guarantee of eternal peace on the planet. In 1877, at the age of 23, he wrote his first will, in which he expressed a desire to create a Secret Society.

Its true purpose, the will stated, “should be to spread British rule throughout the world”. His imperialist ambitions are evidenced, for example, by the following statement: “I would annex the planets if I could.”

Rhodes moved from words to deeds and in 1891 founded a secret society with his own money, called “Round Table” . At first it was British, then it became international, and “Round Table” groups were created in the US, Canada, Australia and other countries. It was very similar to Masonic organizations.

The City of London bankers were immediately involved in the society. First and foremost, Lord Rothschild, with whom Cecil Rhodes was intimately acquainted. The House of Rothschild, as I mentioned above, was a financial partner in a diamond and gold mining project in Africa. Another promising banker was Lord  Alfred Milner . After the death of Cecil Rhodes in 1902, he became a key figure in the “Round Table” society.

In addition to bankers, the society included politicians and professors. The detailed history of the “Round Table” is described in the books of Carroll Quigley  “Tragedy &  Hope: A History of the World in Our Time” (1966) and “The Anglo-American Establishment” (1981).

In the 20th century, many other secret organizations were created. But, according to serious researchers like Carroll Quigley, many of them came from different groups of the “Round Table”. In the US, this is the Council on Foreign Relations  (CFR; 1921). In the UK – the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA; 1920). Internationally – the Bilderberg Group (1954).

By the way, today the “Round Table” in its original form no longer exists. But its “children” in the form of the CFR, RIIA and the Bilderberg Group continue to exert their influence on world politics.

The invisible presence of Cecil Rhodes is felt not only in this. He has been remembered for 120 years in connection with scholarships named after him. As I have already noted, Rhodes died in 1902 before his 50th birthday. He had no family, and Lord Rothschild was probably the closest person to him.

It was to him that he had written off most of his inheritance. But he saved something for a charitable foundation, from which he bequeathed scholarships every year to students at Oxford University (where he once studied).

This was no ordinary charity. Scholarships were to be awarded only to those students who met certain criteria specified in the will. Rhodes really wanted them to be young people who were ready to go to any corner of the world after university in order to promote the plan for building a British superpower.

Lord Milner, Lord Rothschild, and several other “diamond king” associates were aware of these intentions and, at least in the early years, enforced strict controls to ensure that Rhodes scholarships were actually awarded to future empire builders.

Here the Canadian Matthew Ehret,  in his speech at the International Court of Justice “Nuremberg 2″ in early February this year, paid attention to the issue of scholarships from the Rhodes Foundation. He mentions the American diplomat Strobe Talbott  (born 1946).

This is a graduate of Yale University (1968), where he majored in Russian history and literature. He was a member of the Skull and Bones Society. Later (in the early 70s) he continued his studies at the University of Oxford, where he received a Rhodes scholarship for two years.

Matthew Ehret describes this diplomat (who was the US Deputy Secretary of State in 1994-2001) as a distinctly pro-British politician. It is noteworthy that Strobe Talbott was in Oxford at the same time as the future US President Bill Clinton . Even more notably, Clinton was also awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.

And according to Matthew Ehret, the Rhodes Foundation Scholarship Board was right. Followers of Cecil Rhodes were very happy to see their pet as President of the United States. The very country that needs to be drawn into the British Empire. And Bill Clinton did a lot to bring Washington closer to London.

Matthew Ehret notes that those Americans who once studied at Oxford and received scholarships from the Rhodes Foundation, as a rule, held high positions in the United States and were very well promoted. Among such Rhodes scholars, he names Dean Rusk , who served as US Secretary of State under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

There is also Walt Whitman Rostow , who served as National Security Adviser to the President of the United States in 1966-69 and was a Rhodes Scholar before the war, in 1936-1938.

It turns out that the famous American Senator James William Fulbright also received a Rhodes Scholarship before the war. By the way, this senator is primarily known by his own name. The Fulbright program was adopted in the United States in 1946. It provided for the issuance of grants from the State Department for training citizens of other countries in American programs.

As is stated in the documents, “to strengthen cultural and academic ties between citizens of the United States and other countries”. It seems to me that Fulbright initiated this program because of his Rhodes scholarship.

Matthew Ehret also mentions the Rhodes Scholarship recipient and Canadian Escott Reid . He is also a pro-British politician who is considered an architect of NATO. He participated in the preparation of the 1945 conference on the establishment of the United Nations and did everything possible so that the organization being established was not of an interstate, but of a supranational character (such was the position of London).

By the way, in Canada, famous recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship were also the former (in 1967-1974) Governor-General of Canada Roland Michener  and former Prime Minister (1983)  John Turner . Matthew Ehret never tires of saying that all Canadian fellows for some reason consider it an honor to be subjects of the British crown. It is useless to look for supporters of Canadian independence among them.

Here are notable fellows from other countries: President of Pakistan Wasim Sajjad , Prime Minister of Jamaica Norman Manley , Prime Minister of Malta Dom Mintoff , as well as the Prime Ministers of Australia Tony Abbott ,  Bob Hawke  and Malcolm Turnbull .

The total number of people who received the Rhodes Scholarship reached almost 9,000 people. Up to100 scholarships were awarded annually. One could get a scholarship in a year or two. In rare cases – three years (master’s or postgraduate studies).

From 1951 to 1997, 32% of American Rhodes Scholars had careers in education and academia, 20% in law, 15% in business, and 10% in medicine and science. (Schaeper, Thomas and Kathleen Schaeper. “Rhodes Scholars: Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite,” New York, 2010).

By the beginning of this century, “distortions” were revealed in the program. Founder Cecil Rhodes hoped that the fellows would be involved in politics and social activities after university, and become civil servants. And, as it turned out, more and more fellows started to go into business.

Thus, according to a 2009 admission by the foundation’s secretary, at least “half a dozen” Rhodes scholars became Goldman Sachs partners in the 1990s. Also, many ended up on the team of the private law corporation McKinsey, etc. (Schaeper, Thomas and Kathleen Schaeper. “Rhodes Scholars: Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite,” New York, 2010).

The foundation covered tuition fees and provided cash for living expenses. Mr. Rhodes left about £3.3 million 120 years ago, which by the beginning of the last decade amounted to about £290 million, or $480 million.

The money from the original endowment (foundation) and its investments for more than a century was enough to finance the scholarship. But when the financial crisis of 2008 began, the foundation’s income fell, and a certain crisis arose. The number of scholarships and their size have been reduced. They began to say that the project had reached its final stage.

But lo and behold, the project has a saviour. They became the Canadian entrepreneur John McCall MacBain . He had his own business, in particular, the company Trader Classified Media. And he went out of business in 2006, as is said, “in cash”, only about $1 billion.

He earmarked part of the $120 million money for the Rhodes Fellowship program early in the last decade. The decision was timed to coincide with the program’s centenary. John McCall McBain knows about this program firsthand. He studied in the early 1980s at Oxford and was a Rhodes Scholar.

He does not hide the fact that Oxford and a scholarship helped him a lot in life. And it’s not even about academic knowledge or money, but the fact that Rhodes scholars are a special community. In a sense, they are the leaders of the future. And in the future, connections with members of this community can be very useful both in political careers and in business. By the way, in the United States there is even the Association of American Rhodes Scholars.

“ The Rhodes scholarship also got me to meet other future potential leaders from other countries,” noted  MacBain.

At the beginning of this century, the Rhodes foundation was able to grant scholarships to students from 14 countries. Of course, priority was given to English-speaking countries. The United States comes first, followed by Canada, Australia, etc. Other countries covered by the foundation included Germany. During his lifetime, Rhodes especially emphasized the priority of students from the United States and Canada.

Here are his  words : “ Whereas I also desire to encourage and foster an appreciation of the advantages which I implicitly believe will result from the union of the English-speaking peoples throughout the world and to encourage in the students from the United States of North America who will benefit from the American Scholarships an attachment to the country from which they have sprung but without I hope withdrawing them or their sympathies from the land of their adoption or birth .”

John McCall MacBain, when allocating funds for the scholarship program, stated that he would like to expand the geography of the program. In particular, he noted that he would like to see students from Russia and China among the fellows. And since 2018, it has announced the introduction of two so-called global Rhodes scholarships, open to undergraduates and postgraduates from any country in the world. As far as we know, there has not been a single recipient from Russia so far.

In the first year of the program (1902), 58 scholarships were awarded, from which 32 were awarded to students from the United States (55%). And here  is the data  for 2022. 101 scholarships were awarded, including 32 to American students. But the number of scholarships for other countries: Canada – 11;  South Africa – 10; Australia – 9; India – 5; New Zealand – 3.

As we can see, the Cecil Rhodes Foundation tries to maintain the priorities outlined by its founder and contribute to the construction of a large British empire.

PS  On one of the forums on the Internet, I came across a discussion about the Cecil Rhodes scholarship program. One of the participants in the discussion   asks  a question: ” Which comes first, the scholarship or the getting recruited by the CIA/MI6? “. The forum participants have no doubts that the British intelligence agency MI-6 is involved in the program.

Rhodes scholarships and the British network of agents in the world