NEW LOWRY HUT

Evening Star, Issue 25068, 8 January 1944, Page 6

NEW LOWRY HUT

OPENED AT ITALIAN BASE IN Z.E.FV Official War Correspondent.) (Rec. 8 a.m.) NEW ZEALAND ADVANCE BASE IN ITALY, Jan. 4. Through the generosity of Mr and Mrs T. C. Lowry, of Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, the advance !base in Italy has now its own Lowry Hut, complete with kitchen and office appointments, dressing rooms, stage, and big open fireplace, m which oak fires blaze every nio-ht to drive away the chill .Italian, mill-winter. The original Lowry Hut. contributed by the Lowrys, is one of the best-known institutions in 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 tlie afternoon. " The building is substantially constructed of stone and covers an area of 30 feet by 70. It was built % Italian labour under the supervision of a New Zealand engineer who in civilian life practised as an architect in Christchurch. ■ The main hall will seafe between 500 and 600 men, and has a small stage suitable either for

shows or picture screening. The hut is lit by electric power supplied by the unit has shown pictures to troops actucamp plant, and is undoubtedly the most important addition so far made to the amenities of the new base camp.

Mrs A. P. V. Chapman, daughter of the Lowrys, who has managed the Maadi Lowry Hut ever since its establishment, has taken over control of the new hut. She is assisted by two members of the N.Z.W.A.A.C. welfare division. The girls from the New Zealand Forces Club at Bari are taking it in turns to do duty. Women workers in the new Lowry Hut have been given quarters in the nearby residence of the Duke di Sangro. The lint stands next to the bin marquee canteen run by the New Zealand Y.M.C.A.. and the two together are the centre of the advance, camp social life. After the opening ceremony the Y.M.C.A. mobile cinema screened pictures in the evening, and on the'' following evening the E.N.S.A. company put on an entertaining 6hony.