WORKED AT N.Z. FORCES CLUB

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 137, 6 March 1941, Page 5

WORKED AT N.Z. FORCES CLUB

Australian Singer's Experiences An Australian singer, Miss Muriel Wilson, has returned to Sydney with a large supply of lucky souvenirs given to her by New Zealand soldiers with whom she was working in London, states the “Sydney Morning Herald Miss Wilson, who in private life is Mrs. Sydney Foulkes, wife of a captain in the merchant navy, was living in London when war broke out, and she immediately, volunteered for work at the Adelphi, the headquarters of the New Zealand Forces Club. She was usually stationed at the information desk, from 9 in the morning till 8 at night. . , She also helped organize bus excursions and the dances run by the club for the men. At times she acted as “official guide.” Before the blitz began in real earnest, weekly dances for the men were organized, with a fleet of buses to transport them to and from their camps. The head of the New Zealand forces Club is Mrs. Frey berg, wife of MajorGeneral B. Freyberg, G.0.C., N-Z.E.I!. Mrs. Frevberg gives up practically all her time to the welfare of New Zealand troops iu England, said Miss WilS °Miss Wilson used to sing to the troops at the club and at A.R.I. depots. "The Maori soldiers taught me many of their own songs, and 1 promised them to end all my recitals with the lovely Maori “Song of 1 arewell. she said. "It was they who gave me the greenstone tiki, which J always wear on a chain round my neck. They called it ‘a charm of safety for all time,’ and said I was never to take it off —even in my bath I And I never have taken it off, either. “When 1 was rescued from my Anderson shelter and had to crawl out over piles and heaps of debris, the Maoris insisted that the tiki was responsible for my good fortune. My home was wrecked completely, and houses on each side of me flattened, but, though I was badly shaken. I escaped injury. In one house next to me 14 people had been killed, including the New Zealand singer. Hinemoa Moslem’, who had been spending the evening there with friends. "Among my other mascots are two silver fern leaves which were given to me by one of the men in the AntiTank Corps which New Zealanders living in London formed on the outbreak of the war. And yet another mascot is a red and white lanyard which another New Zealand soldier plaited specially for me to wear over one shoulder.” Miss Wilson will leave shortly for New Zealand. She will take with her a big sheaf of letters, asking her to look up mothers, sisters and fiancees in all parts of New Zealand. “They and my music were all that was rescued from my home after three nights of continual bombing," said Miss Wilson, "and I would part with my music before I’d part with the letters.”

The Miramar branch of the New Zealand Union of Townswomen’s Guild held its first meeting for 1941 recently. Mrs. Bradstock, president, was in the chair. Mrs. Kean, convener of the patriotic circle, reported steady progress. A sample of goods most suitable for sending overseas, and which would lie included in soldiers’ parcels, was exhibited.