EMPIRE UNIFORMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 226, 23 September 1936, Page 13

EMPIRE UNIFORMS.

FOR JOHANNESBURG. LONDON'S STOREHOUSE. (Special.—By Air Mall.) * LONDON, August 29. Memories of many campaigns will be revived in Australia and New Zealand by the announcement this week that samples of military uniforms of different periods are being sent out to South Africa by a London firm of theatrical outfitters. They will be copied in hundreds by colonial outfitters for the Special Service Battalion of Pretoria to wear in a display at the Johannesburg Empire Exhibition. Included will be those worn by the Dominion forces in the Boer War. In railway arches near Waterloo Bridge are hanging thousands of costumes and military uniforms. They have been stored there by the firm which is sending the costumes to South Africa. Over 260,000 costumes and uniforms are iised for such displays during a single season, and the work of sorting, cleaning and repairing the clothing when it is returned to the costumiers continues from one end of the year to the other. During the summer as many as 800 new costumes a week are made by the firm, which has 750,0f10 costumes in stock. So much room is needed, for storage of these outfits, that more buildings are to be erected next year. The progress of military uniforms from Monk's Regiment of 1650 to the Crimean War period can be seen in the enormous "warehouse where the thousands Qf bundles of clothing are stored.