DUKE OF YORK AT WEMBLEY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19505, 13 June 1925, Page 9

DUKE OF YORK AT WEMBLEY.

THE GARDEN CLUB. ELEMENTS IN NATIONAL HUILDING-UP. (From Ode Own Correspondent.) LONDON. Mav 8. Prior to the official opening of the British Empiro Exhibition Vliei Duke of York (president) made a thorough tour of a groat part of the Wembley grounds, concluding with a happy inauguration of the Wembley Garden Club. His Royal Highness was received at the gates by the Chief Administrator, General Sir Travers Clarke, and under the general’s escort, he walked from feature to feature. He inspected the Palace of Industry and the Palaeo of Arts, including the several sections of Canada, South Africa, and Australia, noting the modernistic tendencies of the first and the notable landscapes, portraits, and _ statuary which stand for the tJnion territories which the Prince of Wales is touring at present. There was no time to cover all the dominion pavilions, but the Duke inspected the Kenya section of the East African pavilion in the light of his recent visit, and those of Australia and New Zealand, as well as the highly efficient exhibition hospital, and finally the stadium. Here there was a rehearsal impending of the great scenic and patriotic spectacle, 'London Defended, ’’ which is to be Ihe open-air piece da resistance in this year’s programme. Last year’s Lnculhis Restaurant is now the Wembley Garden duly The main saloon has been converted into the semblance of a rose garden by means of highly decorative floral panels in the Fragonarijl manner, and a surrounding framework of rose-embowered trellising, where the painted flowers and the real and imitation blendeffectively under an artistic, sky-coiling worthy of Haly or the Riviera. Here the Duke shook hands and chatted for a whilo with Lady Galwav. Lord Stevenson, Lord Askwith, 'Sir Henry M’Mahon. Sir James Allen, Sir Owen Seaman, Sir James Cooper, Sir Henry Galway Captain Brooke, Captain Boiso.y, Mr Francis Towle, and others. In declaring his pleasure, as president both of the exhibition and the club, at the opportunity of proposing the chib’s success, the Duke described it ns a pleasing and elegant social centre which would happily complete Hie social ’amontit-ies of Wembley. There had been good reason last year to note the lack of such a centre, especially for overseas visitors. “One harinoniu.s union of our Empire,” the. Duke continued, “does not rest, solely on a basis of business. The social element, and the sporting element have entered very largly in the building-up of that union of nations. It is right that, an exhibition whose aim is to show the British Empire in miniature should have its social centre as well as its great sports centre, the Ptadinm. Lord Stevenson spoke of the efforts yhat had been made to make the exhibition hotter and brighter, and to redeem the Wembley Garden Club from the reproach that its decorations had been on the dull side. They had tried to give it a touch of Fragonard and Watteau, and ho thought tbev had succeeded. The visitors commented npnronnglv _ on the sell erne of furnishing end decoration, the considerate provision for the eomfort of members and guests. ;md _ particularly upon a notable feature of the dining saloon, n specially-woven carpet, of generous dimensions simulating the “crazy” pavement of an Oid English garden, liberally interspersed with moss and flowers.