The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-04
PALAT|AL CLUB IN LONDON FOR
 US. OFFICERS

London, March 4.-CCorrespondence 4. of The Associated Press. 1.-The newest and most attractive home. in London for American officers is called the American Officers Inn and stands in Cavendish Square, one of the most fashionable residential districts of the English metropolis. The Inn, which is operated by the American Y. M. c. A., is directly across the square from the American consul generals office. The Inn was formerly occupied by Sir H. H. Raphael, a member of Parliament, who was on the point of selling it when he heard that the Americans wanted it and generously turned it over to them.
 The Inn, which is four-story typi- cal English town house with large rooms and high ceilings, was formally opened by Ambassador Walter Hines Page the other day when it was in spected by several hundred of the leading Americans in England, and others. These included Viscount Bryce, formerly British ambassador at Washington; the Earl of Haddon, the Countess of Reading, wife of the new special ambassador to the United States, Lady Randolph Churchill, Ma jor General Bartlett, in command of the American forces in England, and others widely known on both sides of the Atlantic. A feature was the at tendance of a group of veterans of the American Civil War, now living in England.
 The house has been attractive1y fur nished by the American Y. M. c. A. The walls are hung with series of paintings lent by John Lane, nephew of Sir Hugh Lane, the art collector who was, lost with the Lusitania.
 The Inn, which combines all the ad- lvantages of a first-class club, with dining room, billiard room, library, tea room and about 40 bedrooms, is being managed by a committee of American women, inc1'Iding Lady Ward, daugh- ter of the late American Ambassador, Whitelaw Reid, Mrs. Spender Clay, Mrs. Cecil Higgins and Mrs. E. c. Carter. They are assisted by about 100 women, mostly Americans, who are giving up part of their time usually devoted to other war work
 Greeting visitors at the door is Miss Vivian North of New York, who man. ages to squeeze in few hours from her hospital work to do this and run the elevator. Just inside the door at Ethe registration desk sits Mrs. Allen Nichols, already called Little Mother by the Americans. Mrs. Nichols is an American who has been supervising welfare work among intuition work CTS at Coventry. Her duties corre- spond to those of a chief clerk behind a hotel desk and she is a virtual en- cycEopetdia of information of things that Americans want to know about London. Working alternately with her is Miss Doris Robson, niece of Countess Reading, who has been working on the land until a few days ago.
 Mrs. spender Clay, who came from Philadelphia and is the wife of a Iieutenant-C Colonel in the British Army in France, is general superin- tendent at the Inn. She is the only one to wear the green-grey uniform of the expeditioanry force of the American Y. M. c. A.
 Pretty pinafores of chintz, designed by a prominent American woman, are worn by the numerous American and English women volunteers who come in to take several tours of duty eacf day. These women the majority o1 whom are widely known in society or both sides of the Atlantic, submit tC sort of discipline most cheerfully Those assigned to the Inn put in 2 , regular routine of duty and none has been known to be tardy. One force relieves another and the work is car ried on without interruption.