SERVICE CLUBS

Evening Star, Issue 25495, 28 May 1945, Page 6

SERVICE CLUBS

BIG INAUGURATION AT HAMBURG AMENITIES FOR OCCUPATION TROOPS aiec. noon.) .RUGBY, May 27. An advance guard of" 28 well-trained Naafi girls arrived in Hamburg during the week-end, says a correspondent there, to lay the foundation of the greatest leave scheme yet for British troops on the Continent. Three service clubs are being started almost immediately, and plans for a club vaster in scodc and size than the Brussels Montgomery Club, which could accommodate 10,000* troops daily, are soon to be nut into operation. A victory canteen for British troops in Hamburg is to be opened in a tew days' time, and there will be a club for warrant officers and sergeants. Tho aim is to make the two clubs—and also the officers' club, which will be shortly opening in the city—a model for the rest of the clubs, with every modern facility for rest and recreation. The sergeants' club will be located in the wine cellar of the Hamburg Municipal Hall, and the officers' club will be in the palatial Atlantic Hotel, the second best hotel in Northern Europe. The clubs will be used by Field-Marshal Montgomery's British occupational troops under the Hamburg 48 hours' leave scheme from nothern German towns in addition to troops garrisoning the port itself. Realising that, in view of the nonfraternisation rule, there will be a demand for company for the British girls Avorking with our troops in Germany, the authorities will depute " watchdogs " to chaperon the girls in occupied towns.