ADAPTED CLUB

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21188, 10 August 1940, Page 9

ADAPTED CLUB

TROOPS IN LONDON WAS FASCIST HEADQUARTERS MR FRASER HIDES MUSSOLINI (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Aug. 8 The stirring exhortation, “ Crederes, obedire, combattere ” (“ Believe, obey fight”), 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 abrupty that when the New Zealand War Services’ Association took possession after taking a lease the custodian of enemy property found the 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 perishables in the refrigerator. Workmen had to wear gasmasks to clear it. Since then it has been thoroughly sterilised and particularly well equipped. The kitchen is now ready to begin serving meals to Diggers instead of diplomats. Next to Garrick Theatre The club is situated at 4-6 Charing Cross Road, at the Trafalgar Square end, adjoining the Garrick Theatre, roughly midway between New Zealand House and Piccadilly. The premises have three main floors, with two smaller floors above. It will accommodate' 78 men. There is a billard room, and the lounge can be used also for entertainments, seating, with the balcony, 300 to 400, or for small dances.

On one of the 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 War Services’ Association. The club was taken oyer 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 have been removed and 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. Julius Caesar 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 Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Rt. Hon. Peter Fraser. A life-size statue of Julius Caesar on the balcony remains untouched and obscured. “ 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 Funds Board in New Zealand. The club is controlled by the New Zealand War Services’ Association in the United Kingdom through two honorary supervisors, Mrs Freyberg and Mrs E. S. Hartson, under whom there will be sectional supervisors, each responsible for organising her own roster of voluntary helpers. A manager has not yet been appointed. Daventry is broadcasting the opening ceremony and speeches.