The Harvard Crimson in a copyrighted story today reported that the Harvard Corporation has spurned a $1,500 scholarship for study in Germany which was offered by Dr. Matthew T. Mellon.
According to the Crimson, the rejection of the offer resulted from Dr. Mellon’s identification of his intentions with those of Dr. Ernst F. S. Hanfstaengl, aide of Reichsfuehrer Hitler, whose proffer of a scholarship when he was here recently on a visit was likewise turned down.
“The refusal of Dr. Hanfstaengl’s offer,” the campus newspaper said, “was solely because the donor was one who has been associated so closely with the leadership of a political party which inflicted damage on the universities of Germany through measures which have struck at principles we believe to be fundamental to universities throughout the world.”
The issue in Dr. Mellon’s case, it was pointed out, was not so clear for the reason that any offer of an adequate scholarship for study in the Reich or elsewhere abroad would, under ordinary circumstances, be welcome.
“Dr. Mellon freely chose, however,” the Crimson account continued, “to identify his intentions explicitly with those of Dr. Hanf-staengl that the corporation felt compelled, after the most deliberate consideration and with every desire to do justice to Dr. Mellon, to decline the offer made by him.”
The would-be benefactor, it is understood in Harvard circles, has indicated he will renew his offer, emphasizing that it is “with absolutely no strings attached, merely from an American citizen interested in seeing a Harvard graduate study in Germany.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
