NEW LOWRY HUT

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24150, 8 January 1944, Page 4

NEW LOWRY HUT

PROVISION IN ITALY GIFT OF MR AND MRS T. H. LOWRY (Official War Correspondent N.Z.E.F.) ADVANCE BASE IN ITALY, Jan. 4. Through the generosity of Mr and Mrs T. H. Lowry, Hawke’s Bay, the New Zealand advance base in Italy has now its own Lowry Hut, complete with kitchen and office appointments, dressing rooms, stage, and big open fireplace, in which oak fires blaze every night to drive away the chill of the Italian midwinter. The original Lowry Hut, given by the Lowrys, is one of the best-known institutions of the New Zealand base camp in Egypt. Hundreds of men who have experienced the hospitality of the first are now enjoying that of the second.

The hut at the Italian base was completed on New Year’s Eve after a record building time, and Lady Freyberg performed the opening ceremony during the afternoon. The building is substantially constructed of stone and covers an area 30 feet by 70 feet. It was built by Italian labour under the supervision of a New Zealand engineer who, in civilian life, practised as an architect at Christchurch.

The main hall will seat between 500 and 600 men, and has a small stage, suitable either for shows or picture screenings.

Electric Lighting The hut is lit by electric power supplied by the camp plant. It is undoubtedly the most important addition so far made to the amenities of the new base camp, Mrs A. P. F. Chapman, daughter of Mr and Mrs Lowry, who has managed the Maadi Lowry Hut since it was established, has taken over the control of the new hut. She is assisted by two members of the New Zealand Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Welfare Division, the girls from the New Zealand Forces Club at Bari taking it in turns to do duty. Women workers at the new Lowry Hut have been given quarters in the nearby residence of the Duke di Sangro. The hut stands next to a big marquee canteen run by the New Zealand Y.M.C.A., and the two together' are the centre of the advance camp’s social life. After the opening ceremony the Y.M.C.A. mobile cinema screened pictures in the evening and on the following evening the Ensa Company put on an entertaining show.