NEW ZEALAND SOLDIERS' CLUB.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 765, 24 July 1916, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND SOLDIERS' CLUB.

TO BE OPENED IN RUSSELL SQUARE. WORK OF THE WAR CONTINGENT ASSOCIATION. jtuxtralian nnd .Y.X. CubU AxMciation. (Received July 24, 9.20 a.m.) LONDON, July 23. Tlie New Zealand Soldiers' Club will bo opened in Russell Square on Augusl 1. Tlie War Contingent Association has re--alised the urgency of establishing a social headquarters-for New Zealainlers fighting in France, and a sub-committee was entrusted to carry out the project. It had entire control, the association providing the funds, while the sub-committee themselves contributed £SOO. By arrangements with the War Office, the association obtained three mansions at the corner of the block, with the use of the gardens comprising the square. The military approve of the scheme, providing the men have homelike surroundings, without any military restrictions. The club is within a few minutes of the Record Office ami the War Contingent Rooms in Southampton Row. The association aimed to attract the New Zealandors to a good neighbourhood and to avoid loitering in the slums. The War Contingent Association will arrange for the reception and provide comfortable accommodation for 200 men, and direct others to approved hoarding-houses in the vicinity. It will act as an information bureau and arrange outings. The stall' is composed entirely of New Zealandors, and sympathetic supervision has resulted in the New Zealandors making an excellent impression. The association's arrangements enable it to deal with any number that may arrive. The club will be self-supporting. It has been established entirely by funds publicly subscribed, ami, with businesslike management, a complete success is expected. Russell Square became -what it was before tlie war —pradit-ally the centre of all the tourist traffic of London —because it was convenient to ncarlv everywhere a visitor might want to go. It is within a few minutes' walk'of High llolborn ami New Oxford Street, or Tottenham Court Road, all routes used liy the 'bus services radiating to the 'districts further on; and the tubes have stations equally convenient. The square itself is well kept ami a rather pleasant place, much less noisy than one might imagine.. By lite way. it is only within the past few months that tire London squares, practically the private gardens of the householders about them, have been thrown open to wounded soldiers and others who have been to the wars. The houses round Russell Square, where they have not given way to such huge modern developments as the Rirfisell Hotel or the Imperial, are liuely built, stoat. Georgian residences, which played no inconsiderable part in the social life of the town at the time of the Napoleonic wars. The little lozenges let into the walls tell of many famous men who have lived thereabouts. To-day many of them are offices or the business headquarters of societies—the German Consulate was dose, and the Belgian and French offices are still there. The British Museum is only one minute's walk away. The choice made by the association must be approved in every way. for even if the club itself were full there are streets after streets of boardinghouses of average to good quality all about, so it would be a very particular colonial who could not lind something to suit both his taste ami his purse. Returned soldiers employed ill the Pay and Record Office, moved about two months ago from Victoria Street, will find the change from the dreary shim area of Westminster, which lay just at the back a very pleasant one . Ami, this is no unimportant matter, about Bloomsbury, all up and down Molborn, Oxford Street, and Tottenham Court Road there arc eating houses of every sort; and Westminster was notoriously short of such as would suit the soldier, especially the colonial soldier! Karly in the" war a few soldiers used to be drilled in Russell Square, and this gave the paragraphist a chance to re-unite the thousand and one tales of Bloomsbury, its past and its present boarding-houses. From the quotation of Thackeray, when Becky Sharpe looked out from the window of the corner house, watching for Kawden Crawley, to the tale of the barber. ■who had survived the residents of other days and lived to shave their successors. "Yes, sir, Bloomsbury 'as changed, sir. J can remember when quite good people used to live about 'ere, sir."