Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-05-07
CECIL RHODES Will
First Meeting of Executors Held
Stead Tells What He
Knows.
Originally Rhodes Left Entire
Estate to Stead Without
Trust.
Idea OF Uniting English Speak.
ing Races Held Since His
Youth.

London, May 1.-THE first meeting OF
Gil Rhodes was held in London late
yesterday, DIR. Jameson and i. l.
Mitchell having arrived from South
Africa with Mr.. Rhodes final instruc-
tons. Besides reading the will and de-
Gliding to prove 1t in South Africa, no
business was transacted, but the execu-
tors and trustees of the property, for
the first time, were informed of the
genesis of the will which they will have
to administer. w. r. Stead a. execu-
tor furnished the Associated Press with
the following statement as to the evo
luton of the Rhodes idea. Mr.. Stead
said:
1.-THE present will is the sixth made
by Cecil Rhodes between 1877 n 1893
The first will made by the deceased left
the whole of his property, which was
then comparatively small, to the colo
NAL secretary for the time being, and
to the late Sir Sidney Shippard, for
merly administrator OF British Bech-
uanaland. This will directed the lega-
tees to use his entire property for the
furtherance of the British empire, the
promotion Of emigration, and to effect
q union between Great Britain and the
United States. Five years later Mr..
Rhodes made his second will, cancel
ling the first and leaving his estate to
his old friend, Mr.. Pickering, to whom
he had confided his ideas. Mr. Picker
Ing died in 1883, whereupon Mr.. Rhodes
made another will of the same charac-
ter as the second document, by which
he left his wealth to a financial friend
with instructions to apply it to the fur
therance of his political ideas embodied
in the remarkable paper written in
1877. One of the most remarkable fea-
lures Of this first will was Cecil Rhodes
denunciation Of the 'pig-headed and
ignorant English statesmen who, In the
reign Of George III. destroyed the unity
OF the English-speaking race. In thu;
paper Mr.. Rhodes proceeds: DO you
ever feel mad? Do you ever feel muir
derous? I do when I think OF these
men, Then he points out that If the
English-speaking union had not been
England and America to-
sether could give peace to the whole
world. In 1891 Mr.. Rhodes came to me
said he was convinced that his
financial friend was incapable of un-
his ideas; that 1t filled him
with horror to think of coming back to
world after his death and seeing his
money misapplied. He therefore added
my name to the will, making me a7Joint
heir with his friend. He said also that
would leave a letter directing his
financial friend to conflne himself SOLE
ly to the financial administration of the
estate. leaving the distribution of his
whole wealth absolutely to me. In 1898
will was succeeded by a more IN
formal document, in which MI. Rhodes
left his whole estate to be administered
me, with his friend as financial adj
and 3. A. Hawksley as legal adj
visor, Therefore If Mr.. Rhodes a died
between 1891 and 1899 the whole bur-
den of administering his estate, which
Re himself estimated at from e4,0OO.OO0
to 5000, 900, but which is now believed
to amount to $4,000, 000, would have
been left to me to dispose of without
any formal trust, and as II 1t had been
my own. Mr.. Rhodes knew that he
could rely upon me to use this money
solely for the furtherance OF the rar-
reaching ideas we shared In common.
To the will of 1893 he added a codicil
in which he provided for scholarships
ut oxford to be distributed among the
colonies. On his return to England IN
1894 MI. Rhodes Informed me OF the
Of this codicil. Immediately
him to extend it sc as to grant a
similar number of scholarships to the
American states. He said he approved
his idea, but doubted whether 1t was
practicable. / pressed the matter
strongly. and Mr.. Rhodes said he would
It. ! was gratifed to find
when Mr.. Rhodes drew up his last will
1899 that he had framed this docu-
ment on the basis OF regarding each
self-governing community as an inte-,
grail part Of the English-speaking uni
ty. to promote which was the object he
had in view from his early youth. In
1899 Mr.. Rhodes took others into his
believing 1T possible to ex-
tend Immensely the scope of his will.
The will as it now stands was then
drawn up in accordance with his direc-
tons. The only change subsequently
made in this last document consisted In
increasing the number Of executors. In
January Of 1901, owing to my views
about the South African war, Mr..
removed my name from his
will, and in October Of the same year
he added that Of Lord Miner. On his
.eath bed Cecil Rhodes said to DR..
Jameson: AN American board for the
purpose Of experimenting the admin
.stration of the scholarships allotted to
he United States will probably be o n
stituted. Some time must elapse, how
ever, before arrangements can be COM
pleted for the first competition for
scholarships by students in the United
States or in the British empire"
TOM JOHNSON A MISSIONARY.