ON 3rd November, 1910, the following notice appeared in the Press :— With a view to economy and to unity of effort and control, the work of collecting money for the Royal National Life-boat Insti- tution hitherto done in certain directions to a large extent by the Life-boat Saturday Fund will be undertaken on and from the 1st of January next by the Institution, as part of its ordinary business. To this end the Central and District Committees of the Life-boat Saturday Fund have passed a resolution that the Fund bo wound up and dissolved, and have ap- pointed a special sub-committee, with the necessary powers, to carry the resolution into effect.

The Committee of Management of the Insti- tution and the Central Committee of the Fund hope .that, when on the above-mentioned date the Life-boat Saturday Fund ceases to exist, friends of the cause who have been members of Local Committees of the Fund will, as far as may be compatible with local feeling and the wishes of subscribers, support and in reasonable numbers join the Branch Committees of the Institution, and that in places where there are no Branch Committees they will assist in forming the Committees to work under the direction of the Committee of Management.

The Committee of Management of the Institution would like to take this opportunity of expressing their high appreciation of the work done by so many public-spirited men and women in all parts of the United Kingdom in connexion with the Life-boat Saturday Fund, and to add the expression of their hope that, although the Fund is now being wound up, these workers will continue their generous efforts in support of a cause which appeals alike to the instincts of humanity and to that sympathy with those who are exposed to the dangers of the sea which is natural to the people of the greatest maritime country in the world.

In accordance with the above state- ment the Life-boat Saturday Fund was dissolved on 31st December, 1910, and the Institution took over the work of collecting money on special lines for the Life-boat cause, which has been carried out by the Fund since its foundation by Sir Charles Macara in 1891, as an auxiliary of the Institution, for the purpose of more widely directing the attention of the public to its claims.

It had been felt, for some time past, that this step was necessary in order to re-establish that unity of control which is so essential to the efficient organisa- tion and administration of a great national undertaking. The Committee of Management feel sure that all sincere lovers of the Life-boat cause will wel- come a measure which will remove con- fusion and over-lapping, and facilitate the concentration of public interest and public support in one channel.

While, however, we must rejoice that the work of those who are interested in the great cause of life-saving will hence- forward be carried out on homogeneous lines under one direction, we must not forget that the Life-boat cause owes a deep debt of gratitude to the thousands of patriotic men and women who have given so much time and energy to the advocacy of the claims of the Institution in connexion with the Life-boat Saturday Fund. We know that some of these public-spirited people have worked, from the inception of the Life-boat Saturday movement, with unremitting energy and zeal, and we trust that they are assured of the great appreciation of the Com- mittee of Management of the Institution for their devoted efforts for a great cause. As will be seen by the press notice which we have quoted above, the Committee of Management took the first opportunity of expressing their sincere thanks when their decision to wind up the Fund was made public.

But the Institution felt that the great services rendered by the mass of the Life-boat Saturday workers deserved higher recognition than could be offered by the Committee of Management itself.

The Chairman, therefore, laid before His Majesty a brief survey of the great work done by the Fund, and the King, as Patron of the Institution, and former President of the Fund when he was Prince of Wales, expressed his gracious thanks to the workers in the following letter addressed to the Chairman of the Institution by Sir Arthur Bigge :— YORK COTTAGE, SANDRINGHAM, 1st December, 1910.

DEAR SIR FrrzRoY CLAYTON, I have, laid before the King your letter of the 30th November, in which you report for His Majesty's information the winding-up of the Life-boat Saturday Fund. It is with much satisfaction that the King learns that this has been arrived at in an amicable and har- monious spirit.

His Majesty, while Prince of Wales, having been both President of the Insti- tution and the Life-boat Saturday Fund, realises what good work has been done by the latter association since 1891 in drawing attention to the needs of the Institution, and thereby obtaining large additions to its income.

The King, therefore, desires to express through your Committee his deep ap- preciation of the generosity and public spirit with which so many men and women throughout the country have devoted themselves to a great national object in their work for the Life-beat Saturday Fund.

Yours truly, (Signed) ARTHUR BIGGE.

COLONEL SIR FiTzRov CLAYTON, K.G.V.O., Chairman, Royal National Life-boat Institution.

This letter was published in the Press throughout the United Kingdom on the 12th December, 1910.

Thus Life-boat Saturday workers may feel that though the organisation with which they were most closely connected has come to an end, their work has been fitly crowned by the royal thanks of the King, whose interest in everything that affects the welfare of the country, especially in connexion with the Navy and maritime affairs, is well known.

Nor must it be thought that because the particular framework of the Life- boat Saturday Fund has gone, therefore there is no call for the services of the workers who served our cause in con- nexion with it. On the contrary, they are wanted more than ever, now that the Institution has taken over the work itself, and we earnestly hope that they will help us to maintain the steady increase of income which the growth of our work demands. As an indication of the extent of our needs it may be pointed out that even the large sum collected by the Life-boat Saturday Fund in the nineteen years from 1891 to 1909 never sufficed to cover the four special foundation objects which the Fund particularly had in view. It may be as well to recall those objects, as stated in the " Constitution" of the Life-boat Saturday Fund itself. The moneys col- lected by the Life-boat Saturday Fund were to be applied as far as possible to the following grants and payments which are made by the Institution— (a) Grants to widows and young children of Life-boatmen who have lost their lives in the Service, not less than 100?. being allowed for each widow, and 25t. for each dependent child.

(6) Grants to men injured in the Service.

(c) Pensions and retiring allowances to Coxswains, Bowmen, and Signalmen of long and meritorious service, who have been retired on account of old age, ill-health, accident, or abolition of post.

(d) Payments to Coxswains and Crews for services rendered, including exercises, special rewards and recogni- tions, etc.

We would draw particular attention to this excerpt from the " Constitution " of the late Fund, as much mischief has been caused by the unjustifiable state- ment that the Fund was directed to one purpose only, viz., to provide for the widows and orphans of Life-boat- men. It is to be feared that this inaccurate statement, so frequently repeated, has been the cause of much prejudice and friction. For the Institu- tion has always made it its object to secure the most perfect organisation of the life-saving service around these coasts.

The efficiency of that service depends upon two factors—the machinery and the men. Both are costly, for both have to submit to the high tests im- posed by the stress and strain of what is, in its very nature, an exceptional service. Thus the cost of building, maintaining and equipping the Life- boats, carriages, houses, slipways and necessary stores amounted in 1910 to upwards of 60,OOOJ. ; and the payments under the headings a, 6, c and d, indicated above, amounted to 27,2751. It would obviously be the height of folly to stint the expenditure required for providing the very best machinery for the life- saving service and the payment of the most efficient men for that service.

For to do so would be not only to hamper the great humane work of the Life-boat, but to expose the brave men who give their services to additional risks which ought not to be incurred.

The result of the high standard which is thus maintained is seen in the small- ness of the loss of life which takes place in connexion •with the service. Hence there are, thank God, very few widows and orphans, and we will hope that there will be even less as time goes on and the advance of science is made to minister still further to the benefit of humanity. Yet, by a curious in- version of sentimentality, well-meaning but superficial critics sometimes contrast the large sums spent on machinery and on the services of those who make it efficient, with the comparatively small amount spent in pensions to widows and orphans. It is an important factor in the claim of the Institution to the generous support of the public that so few of its Life-boatmen perish in the discharge of their duty, and we may hope that the facts which we have now placed before our readers will convince them that the only way to secure so satisfactory a result is to spend wisely, but liberally, in the maintenance of the service, rather than to have to provide on a larger scale for the unfortunate victims of disasters which might be caused in however slight a measure by an unwise parsimony in the provision and maintenance of the personnel and materiel of the service.