LONDON CLUB

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 216, 10 August 1940, Page 8

LONDON CLUB

FOR DOMINION TROOPS. FORMER FASCIST PREMISES. (From the New Zealand Official War Correspondent in Great Britain.) LONDON, Aug. 8. “Credere, obbedirc, combat tore” —believe, obey, fight. This stirring and appropriate exhortation, lettered in gold paint and repeated again and again until it encircles the walls of their lounge, greets soldiers sailors and airmen entering the New Zealand Forces Club, which will be opened in London to-morrow afternoon by Mrs Winston Churchill. From early in 1937 until three minutes after Italy entered the war, the club was the Fascist headquarters in Britain. After those three minutes Italian occupation ceased abruptly, so abruptly that when the New Zealand War Services Association took possession after taking the lease, the Custodian of Enemy Property found dining-tables laid and a menu on each.

He found also that the police had switched off the electric power without reckoning the effect on meat and other perishable good, in the refrigerator. The workmen had to wear gns masks to clear it. Since then, however, it has been thoroughly sterilised and the particularly well-equipped kitchen is now ready to begin serving meals to Diggers instead of to diplomats. AMENITIES DESCRIBED. The club is situated at 4-6 Charing Cross Road, at the Traialgar Square end, adjoining tho Garrick Theatre, roughly midway between New Zealand House and Piccadilly.

The premises comprise three main floods, 120tt by 30it, wth two smaller floors above ior offices. The basement, kitchen, and canteen (the former Fascist dining-room) accommodate 78 men. In the billiard room there are three full size tables. There are also storerooms, a washroom with hot and’cold showers, and a canteen service, cafeteria style. Amenities include a beer license. On the ground floor are the manager’s and other offices, an inquiry cum accommodation bureau, cloak room, slot telephone, entrance hall and a lounge GOft by 30ft, which can be used also for entertainments, seating, with the balcony, 300 to 400 for small dances. On the first floor, besides the balcony, there are the officers’ and nurses’ rooms, 30ft by 40ft, with slot telephones. The refreshments obtainable here are by servery lift connecting with the kitchen and bar. On one of two upper floors are four beautifully furnished offices and on the other five smaller office rooms, which will be the headquarters of the New Zealand M ar Services Association.

The club was taken over, as a going concern. Little alteration was required as the appointments and furnishings were lavish and easily adaptable. Formerly there were numerous Italian wall plaques, inscriptions and decorations, some of which were - removed, while others are being left in the meantime. These are bound to appeal to the troops’ sense of humour. For example, as one entered from the street one formerly looked straight ahead at a bronze profile of Mussolini which dominated the vestibule. This was found to be so firmly fixed that removal would have damaged the wall. Accordingly the bronze remains where it was, but nobody would suspect its presence unless he was told, as it is wholly obscured by an overhanging large framed portrait of the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Fraser). A lifc-sizx: statue of Julius Caesar on the balconv remains untouched and unobscured. “After all,” said one group of soldiers up from camp to help prepare, the rooms, “he wasn’t a bad bloke and might have been on our side.”

The rental of the premises will later be met by the National War bunds Board in New Zealand. The club is controlled by the New Zealand War Services Association in the United Kingdom through two honorary supervisors, Mesdames B. C. Freyberg and E. S. Hartson, under whom there will bo sectional supervisors, each responsible for organising her own roster of voluntary helpers. A manager has not yet been appointed. INFANTRY ROUTE AIARCH.

The third field exercise of the infantry consisted in the main of a route march of 80 miles, spread over six perfect summer days and taking the men into one of the most peantiful districts in Southern England. They ieturned to camp to-night, some a trifle footweary and all su.n-butfled, happy and more* fit than ever. A fortunate 15 per cent, are receiving leave to-morrow and going to London early to attend the opening of the New Zealand Forces Club before the weekly dance in Porchester Hall, Paddington.