DISABLED MEN'S WORK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23687, 20 December 1938, Page 14

DISABLED MEN'S WORK

EXHIBITION AT KENSINGTON (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 14. Twenty years after! At the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, on Armistice Day women workers were busily selling articles of all kinds made by war-disabled soldiers. The day before the Queen and the Duke of Kent had paid visits, buying Christmas presents. " We were not doing so very well until then," said a woman at one of the stalls. "People forget, you know. But since the newspapers reported the presents bought by the Queen and the Duke, we have been very busy." The disabled men's exhibition is held annually at this time of the year and the Royal Family always make a point of visiting it to make a number of their Christmas purchases. Anything from a window wedge, hand-painted with " Sleepy' of Seven Dwarfs' fame neatly embellishing it, to an armchair or a glittering necklace may be bought, and the Roval Family buy almost as wide a variety of articles as there are exhibited. One of the first purchases by the Queen was a miniature house of the Seven Dwarfs. She counted the dwarfs to make sure that they were all there. She was amused by A.R.P. handkerchiefs with initials making aeroplane formation. " I must have these for the King," she said. Country clothes were her next choice for herself—red and grey tweed and blue tweed lengths to be made into coats and skirts, and a suit of light blue wool crocheted in a new pattern by disabled sailors. A jumper in three shades of blue, and a polo net jumper in plum colour are being made up for her. A "Happy Jock" also attracted attention. It is a fearsome wooden, hand-painted crocodile with a wavering red leather tongue, and it clicks forward down an incline. The Duke of Kent bought several gifts for Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra. One was a Noah's Ark. He also bought sports jerseys made by widows of naval men, a blue rug and a cloth handbag, a chromium tea tray, a set of print linner mats 100 years old, silk handkerchiefs, and a dinner set. The Duchess was not with him, for she was fulfilling an engagement in the city. The Duke is a careful shopper, however, and when choosing men's jumpers pulled them in his hands to test their elasticity, and approved of the gardening basket with rubber-tyred iron wheels, saying that the wooden wheels on the older type " wouldn't work." Two thoughtful gifts which this royal father bought for his children were little tumblers with painted designs of Peter Rabbit. "They don't drink out of glasses yet, but they soon will," he explained. Other toys which he purchased were a woolly dog of the type which is pullled over the hand —he tried this on himself to make it work—a wooden tumbling toy and a farm yard. Queen Mary and the Princess Royal have also paid visits to the exhibition and made a large number of purchases. Both showed a liking for jig-saw puzzles and for hand-painted glassware. Hot-water bottle covers attracted the attention of the Princess Royal, and she also chose a Noah's Ark. The exhibition was opened this year by the American Ambassador, who promised that every member of his family of nine would visit it, whether they came singly or together.