SOLDIERS' CLUBS IN LONDON

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 61, 23 August 1940, Page 3

SOLDIERS' CLUBS IN LONDON

Hospitality For New Zealanders HE New Zealand Soldiers’ Club, which has been opened in Charing Cross Road, is in the heart of the London our men will want to see. It is only a few minutes from Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and Theatreland; Soho and its many quaint restaurants; the Thames: Embankment, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens; the famous art galleries, cathedrals and restaurants; and the Changing of the Guard at St. James’s Palace. If they wish to go for a walk before breakfast they will be able to go down The Strand to Trafalgar Square, under the Admiralty Arch into the Mall, and take a look at Buckingham Palace at the far end, thus combining a constitutional with some of the sights of the heart of the Empire. Charing Cross railway station, with its famous Eleanor Cross in the yard, faces The Strand nearby, and a few minutes’ walk away across the Thames, is Waterloo Station. There are plenty of tube stations close at hand, radiating to all parts of London. The Club of 1914-18 This club will be a corner of New Zealand in London, just as the New Zealand Soldiers’ Club (or Hostel) of the last war became the meeting place for men on leave. Our Club then was in Russell Square, in the heart of the famous Bloomsbury district, and within strolling distance of the Pay Office at headquarters in Bloomsbury Square. The Club of 1914-18 was a splendidly controlled institution, thanks to the great work of the late Sir Henry Nolan, the manager. He was every kind of parent to the many thousands of New Zealand soldiers who stayed there on leave and his kindness and attention to detail, his advice and thoughtfulness will be remembered by many old "diggers" to this day. Nor was his daughter less kind or thoughtful. How they ever found accommodation for the constant stream of men who besieged the place is a mystery, which they alone were able to solve. But solve it they did, as well as the problem of providing meals at all hours of the day or night. Leave trains arrived in London at the most unexpected hours, depending on the time the leave boats were able to speed across the Channel from France. But whatever the hour, there was .always a welcome for new arrivals at the club. No Lack of Friends Our men will not lack for friends. During the last war there were always people waiting to arrange trips and tours; there was a bureau where tickets for theatres were obtainable for nothing, thanks to the good services of Miss Rosemary Rees. The British people will be no less hospitable than they were during the last war, and our men will not lack invitations to their homes.

WAR DIARY.