MUFTI CLUB

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 289, 5 September 1945, Page 4

MUFTI CLUB

Wellington Venture For Men

Out Of Uniform

Though there ate numbers of clubs operating for servicemen' and ex-service-men, the first one for ex-servicemen only is already functioning in Wellington and is probably the only one of its kind in New Zealand. It is the Mufti Club, and is 1( Y.W.C.A. project sponsored with the aid of young business girls who have ■beep trained to act as hostesses, by attending a course of lectures on the subject. Mrs. W. A. Riddell spoke on “The Perfect Hostess.” Other lecturers were Miss M. Hursthouse, Mrs. N. F. E. Robertshawe, Dr. Hubert Smith and Mies A. M. Bentham.

The club will eventually replace the weekend entertainments arranged for Navy. Army and Air Force personnel. Officials from the R.S.A. and the Home Servicemen's Association are interested to see how the experiment will- progress. There are already 70 girl members, who are divided uji into teams with a leader, each teapi taking a night in turn when they act specially as hostesses, attend to the supper, arranging of the programme, and clearing up. Men are not made members, but attend as guests.

The men are supporting it well. They have made several suggestions which a? 6 being followed up, and the club is growIng all the time. .The. girls hear regular lectures. Talks have been given on life on a troopship, the welfare of men overseas. conditions of fighting and living in New Guinea, and on the Navy. The Mufti Club is not a dance club, though dances are held each Tuesday night. Once a fortnight dancing lessons are held for the men wanting to learn.

Sergeont H. J. S. Plimmer, Wellington, for four years o prisoner of war in Germany, and his bride, nee Miss Joan Percy, daughter of Mr. W. S. Percy, the well-known actor-author, taken, in- Trafalgar Square, London. Sergeant Plimmer is due home this week.

and there are also bridge classes. • To enable the men to feel that the club is really as much theirs as it is the girls’, it is proposed to form a dance committee with fhe men and girls equally represented.

A nrovisional committee of team leaders has been set up in the meantime. Members are Misses Audrey McLuggage, Margaret McKenzie. Nola Cotton, Alice Hewitt, and Hilda Stewart. Election of a president has been deferred till the girls have got to know one another better. The two hostesses-in-chief are Mrs. Mildred Marsh and Miss Dawn Jenkins.