THE ANZAC BUFFET

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 211, 25 May 1918, Page 7

THE ANZAC BUFFET

.-■■..' .' (To the Editor.) . ' : Sir,—l regret to notice that someone ■ has been writing to your paper about ■■- : Miss , Ada Reeve anil the Anzac Buffet : in a.manner that seems to convey'a i slight',with it. ■ Most people know , that no one has dono more for the soldiers i of the Empire than Miss Reeve. Some : people'get tired, Miss Reovo never. It■, ■ ' is the-same with her, lvhcther. she is in. ' England, Egypt, India, Australia,. .or ; New Zealand—thero is always something , ; übno for tho boys., . ■ And now that after her big Anzao Buffet ■ effort someone under a n'onT • do plume should insinuate that the Buffet was. for, Australians alone, and that ; New Zealanders had been 1 had (which is: noli The case)us a bit over tho oddsj i and must;-hurt Miss.Reeve. ■ ;

Miss Ecevo has been a marvel right through, and I have read that in England sho did big things, gave up hor home in the Isle, of .Wight for a liospit.il, nnd offered to run a show in France for tile■■§6ldiersrTirss' licai's tales, of her travelling miles in Egypt, and India to keep faith with her boys. ; ■.

During her present trip in New Zealand- ehe has given concerts at Invercargill,'Rotorua,'L6wr.v" Bayi'and the Victoria Military Ward, Wellington, I wonder if- "Returned", has done a quar- ; ter oi'.what.Aliss Rcove.has for the boys, and, if not, why raise' a question at all about.:the. Buffet; which I happen to know is, kept open night nnd daj for both Australians and New Zealandere in khaki—l am, etc, CORPORAL, 1/278 and 8/1460, Samoa, Egypt, and France. ... (To the Editor.). Sir,—As Miss Ada Reevo is no longer collecting for tho Anzac Buffet tho need for pursuing the subject further no longeiv. exists, My primary object jn writing the letter which uppeared in, your columns of the 18th inst. was to uppriso the public of the truu relations existing between the Ivmv Zealand soldiers and the Anzac Buffet. , . Perhaps I did , not express myself sufficiently clearand.Miss Reeve suggests I am inaccurate and niisinfomfed. ' In reply, I can only reiterate what I then said,, which was, in effect, that New 'Zealand soldiers vvery seldom make uso of the. Anzac Buffet, they_ liaye their own club and buffets in-.qiiite/'another part of London, wheip.' also,.are situated the l New Zealand military, offices. Before these offices were shifted from Victoria Street, which was about tho. middle of , tho year 1916,' the Anzac; Buffet was used freely by our boys, But from that time it has been almost exclusively uijed by Australians, though thcro is no doubt that New Zealanders are occasionally to ba seen there. When, therefore, Miss Reeve's says that she has seen New Zealaud soldiers in the club, no one will doubt it, and also no one will doubt) the fact that the club was founded for

"Anzacs." Only Gallipoli ,ivarrioro were knocking round in 11)15 and the early.part, of 1916, and they were not many. When the Record Office*, r Pay, HeanquarterSj etc., itook uprtbeir quarters in Southampton Row, the troops naturally followed, find soon afterwards when the New Zealand Club in 'Russell Squiiro and the Buffet in' Southampton Row appeared, the Anzac Buffet was visited less and less by our soldiers, until now if is "hardly' used at all, and it ia \ a popular idea with them that the An* ziic Buffet', is an Australian concern only* —I .am, etc., ■■'■■ ■ ■ •■;■' RETURNED.