NAVAL HOSTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 14

NAVAL HOSTS

VOLUNTEER RESERVISTS' DANCE

R.N.V.R. HEADQUARTERS

EN FETE

Though women have been honoured guests at numerous functions at the R.N.V.R. divisional headquarters, Hinemoa Street, there must be comparatively few who have ever seen the inside roof of the large building. For at each dance the division has held within recent years a huge silken canopy striped in wide bands of blue and gold has completely canopied the quarterdeck, and naval pennants and signal flags have been strung round the walls.

Saturday's dance, at which the officers and ship's company -were hosts by permission of the commanding officer, proved no exception. In addition to the awning and the bunting, flowers had been arranged throughout the building, great bowls lavishly filled with chrysanthemums and autumn foliage showing a distinct masculine hand in their arrangements. In the shadow of guns the orchestra was seated and played rousing music, in which military two-steps and "Paul Jones's" predominated. The executive officers' room, with its comfortable furnishings, was used by officials for sitting out, yellowshaded standard lamps glowing on bowls and glass troughs of tawny chrysanthemums. The officers' wardroom was always crowded with people, for there was one of the largest attendances in years at the dance.

Newcomers to R.N.V.R. dances were flattered by the attention they received. Uniformed young men were on duty outside the building to open the doors of motor-cars and to salute their passengers; members of the company conducted guests to the wide companionway, where they were welcomed by an officer at the top; occasionally men were detailed to conduct visitors to their cloakrooms, and all gave the impression that each guest was specially welcome. Uniforms of each Service and of many different companies were represented on the dance floor, though i proportion of the young men present were in mufti. Those in the official party were Commander F. Taylor and Mrs. Taylor (the latter wearing pale blue satin), Mr. and Mrs. T. C. A. Hislop (the Mayoress's frock being of burgundy velvet), Commodore and Mrs. H. E. Horan, Group-Captain H. W. L. Saunders, Group-Captain and Mrs. L. M. Isitt, Commander Fanshawe, Captain and Mrs. Tether, Paymaster-Captain and Mrs. Cooper, Lieutenant-Com-mander and Mrs. Lidgett and Miss B. Lidgett, Lieutenant-Commander and Mrs. T. Ellis, Lieutenant-Commander St. Aubyn, Major and Mrs. A. V. Jenkins, Major and Mrs. C. D. A. George, Lieutenant P. N. Lewis, and Mr. E. H. Woodward, R.N.

Those responsible for the arrangements of the dance comprised the can.teen committee, which consists of officers and men of the different sections of the Division.