AMERICAN RED CROSS CLUB

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 103, 26 January 1943, Page 4

AMERICAN RED CROSS CLUB

Provision In Wellington SPECIAL BUILDING TO BE ERECTED “Construction will begin at once, and we .hope to be able to open In two months’ time,” said Miss Hannah More Frazer, supervisor of club and offcamp activities for the American Red Cross in New Zealand, referring yesterday to the American Red Cross Club which is to be -built on the vacant site the back of the Wellington Central Public Library, facing Harris Street. Permission for the use of the site was granted, subject to certain provisos reported elsewhere, by the Wellington ■City Council at a special meeting at noon yesterday. “The building will be approximately 211 feet in length and 100-feet in depth. Miss Frazer said, “and its facilities will be available to all Allied servicemen, in accordance with the customary practice in all sueb American Red Cross activities. “There will be a theatre-dance hall, 100 feet by 40 feet, with the necessary dressing-room accommodation -beside the stage. Dances will be held every night, and in the daytime the floor will accommodate various games, such as box hockey, badminton, and shufflebonru, ’“The dining-room will be 84ft. long by 41 feet wide, with a soda fountain extending half the length of one side. One hundred per cent. American meals will be served, the cooking being done by a New Zealand staff under American supervision. There will also be hamburghers, hot dogs, and hot cakes. The large and well-equipped kitchen will adjoin the dining-room. “The lounge will be 46 feet by 40 feet, and off it a writing-room with plenty of writing desks. Off the entrance vestibule on one side there will be a dressing-room for voluntary helpers, with an information counter and a check (cloak) room on the other. The accommodation for the executive staff will face the main entrance. A number of shower-baths are to be provided. “The administrative staff will he supplied from the United States, and they will supervise the local workers, while an advisory committee is in process of formation from women of the American colony in Wellington.” Miss Frazer added that all the furnishings were in course of preparation by a local firm.

PERMISSION GRANTED

City Council Discussion “This will fill a great, need,” said the mayor of Wellington, Mr. Hislop, when moving at special}’ meeting of the city council yesterday morning a resolution granting permission to the American Red Cross to erect, a club for the use of their own and Allied servicemen on the vacant site behind the Wellington Central Public Library. “They have ben very badly in need of a place to accommodate their servicemen. The necessary permission for the materials and-labour has been granted by the Government. “I think we should grant it rent free for the period of the war and six months afterwards,” Mr. Hislop added, “and a proviso should be added that nominal charges shall be made for meals in conformity with the practice of other clubs operating under the aegis of the National Patriotic Fund Metropolitan Committee. It is also stipulated that, there is to be no dance music before 8.30 p.m., but this could, of course, be relaxed on special occasions.” The scheme was approved with the following provisos:—That kitchen to be so placed as to constitute the least Possible nuisance: that there was to be no emission of smoke whatever: that the most effective fire apparatus, approved by Fire Superintenden t Woolley, be installed, with a 24-hour fire patrol to be maintained; that adequate exits be installed in case of fire; and that the general use of the building be subject lo flic council’s control.