The eighty-eighth Annual General Meeting of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION was held in the Whitehall Rooms on Thursday, March 14th, 1912. His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, K.G., presided, and amongst those present were: — The Right Hon. the Earl "Waldegrave, P.O., V.P. (Chairman of the Committee of Management), Sir John Cameron Lamb, C.B., C.M.G., V.P. (Deputy-Chairman), Admiral John Halliday Cave, C.B., V.P., Sir Godfrey Baring, Bart., M.P., Mr. Harold D. Clayton, the Hon.

George C. Colville, Colonel the Hon.

Charles E. Edgcumbe, Mr. John Bevill Fortescue, Lieut. H. T. Gartside- Tipping, R.N., Mr. Harry Hargood, Mr. Eugene F. Noel, Captain Robert Pitman, C.M.G., R.N., Captain George B. Preston, Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart., Rear-Admiral Hector B. Stewart, the Deputy - Master of the Trinity House, the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, Mr. Alfred G. Topham, Sir Allen W. Young, C.V.O., C.B., the Right Hon. Sir George Houston Reid, G.C.M.G., P.O., Sir Henry Craik, K.C.B., M.P., Mr. John Last Sayer, Commander St. Vincent Nepean, M.V.O., R.N., Mr. George F. Shee, M.A. (Secretary of the Institution), Commander Thomas Holmes, R.N.

(Chief Inspector of Life-boats), Mr.

William Spicer (Assistant Secretary), Captain Sir F. Hervey-Bathurst, Bart., and Capt. A. C. Gust.

The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said: The first duty I have to perform on this occasion is the presentation of the Annual Report. I do not know that there is very much in the Report which makes it necessary for me to detain you at any length, hut it ifi satisfactory to note that the work of this Institution goes on steadily, and that in the past year our awrage successes in the saving of life have been normal; we have done very much the same as in former years, and there is no striking difference in any direction.

Perhaps the best criterion of the value of our-work is afforded by a comparison between the number of lives lost on our coasts and the number that the Life-boat service succeeds in rescuing from a watery grave. Here the Board of Trade figures provide us with the necessary data. In the year ending 30th June, 1910, the total number of lives lost in casualties on the coasts of the United Kingdom was 350.

In the same period the Life-boats of the Institution saved 427 lives, while 188 were saved by shore-boats and were rewarded by the Institution.

If we go further back and take what we have done since the year 1861 we find that, while on an average 600 lives were lost annually, the Institution has been instrumental in saving an average of 700 lives a year.

No less than 50,081 lives had been saved by the Institution sines it was first started in the year 1824 up to the 31st December last, and if we remember that for a good number of years after 1824 the Institution was in very low water, I think its work in later years constitutes a very creditable record. (Hear, hear.) Eight new Life-boats were sent to the coast lost year, and three of these were motor boats. The efforts of the Committee are now, as always, directed to taking advantage of the latest scientific improvements in every possible way, and I am sure that we shall all agree on one thing—that if we expect men to risk their lives in this Life-boat service it is our bounden duty to spare no expense and no trouble in making their efforts as litble dangerous as the conditions of the case render possible.

Now, I should Mke to say one word about our position as regards other countries. You know we Englishmen are rather apt to crabourselves. We perhaps boast a little when we talk to our neighbours, but when we talk amongst ourselves we are very apt to say we don't do things half as well as other nations do. As regards this Life-boat service, let me say this: that it has been the Life-boat ser- vice of the United Kingdom which has spurred on other nations to adopt our methods, and which gave an example for other nations to imitate as far as they could. There are now Life-boat services in France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Turkey, as well as in our oversea Dominions, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. And we do all we can to give all these countries the advantage of our long experience in order to assist the efforts which they are making in their endeavours to save life at sea. But there is one country which I think presents a very useful lesson to us.

You have heard, I am sure, from time to time proposals that the Life-boat service should be taken over by the Government of the country.

There is a sort of idea in some people's minds that that abstract thing called the Govern- ment can do things so very much better than private people, and that idea has been ex- tended to the Life-boat service. People have said, "Why should it not be a National Service instead of being carried on by a private Institution ? " Well, in the United States it is carried on, and carried on very efficiently, by the Government of the day; and although their sea-coast is vastly more extensive than ours yet it is possible to compare the two because, curiously enough, they have 281 stations provided with Life-boats, while we have 283 Life-boats on our coasts. The cost of that service to the United States is 468,OOOZ. a year, and the service of our Insti- tution is carried on at 100,0002. Now, these figures are useful, I think, in two ways. First of all, it shows the vast economy which is effected by private effort as compared with the effort of the State; and, secondly, it is a goad reply to some of those—I trust the feeling has died down now, but I remember it was rather rife some years ago—who say that we spend a very large amount of money each year. As I have said before, it is very neces- sary that we should secure the absolutely best appliances if we are to expect men to risk their lives in the service, and I do not believe we should be justified in cheeseparing. But.

after all, I do not think we can be said to be extravagant. We spend less than a quarter of the sum the United States finds it neces- sary to spend for practically the same number of Life-boats.

I don't think there is anything more to detain you with. But there is one matter of great congratulation. You will remember that recently the Life-boat Saturday Fund was absorbed by the Institution. That Fund was a very useful auxiliary in spurring people forward to subscribe and to contribute to the Life-boat service, and it might have been thought that when that stimulus was removed there might have been a falling off in the subscriptions. But I am happy to be able to remind you that the revenue from Sub- scriptions, Donations, and remittances from Branches was somewhat larger last year than it has been for some years post. (Applause.) We want all the money we can get, however.

You must remember that the Legacies which are left us are largely spent in providing the necessary expenditure of the Institution, and we certainly do want a very large guarantee fund, as I might call it, behind us for paying our way, so that we may be able to invest most Legacies. One regrets to have to spend Legacies as income, so that, although we are fortunate in the support that we get, we want a great deal more.

I now present the Report to you. If any lady or gentleman wishes to make any obser- vations we shall be very glad to hear them.

(Applause.) As no one wishes to make any remarks I will ask the Secretary to read the names of those proposed to fill the offices of President, Vice-Presidents, members of the Committee of Management, and Auditors.

The SECBETABY read the names of the Committee of Management as follows:— President.

The Duke of Northumberland.

Vice-Presidents.

The Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Duke of Leeds.

The Duke of Portland.

The Duke of Abercorn.

The Marquis of Ailsa.

The Earl of Rosebery.

The Earl Waldegrave.

The Earl Brassey.

The Viscount Clifden.

Colonel Sir FitzRoy Clayton.

Sir John Cameron Lamb.

Admiral John Halliday Cave.

Treasurer.

The Earl of Harrowby.

Other Members of the Committee of Management.

The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Albemarle, K.C.V.O., C.B., A.D.C.

Major-Gen. Edward A. Altham, C.B., C.M.G.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bart., M.P.

Admiral the Right Hon. Lord Charles W. de la Poor Berestord, G.C.B., G.C.V.O., M.P.

Robert Birkbeok, Esq.

Admiral Claude E. Buckle.

Charles J. P. Cave, Esq.

Kenneth M. Clark, Esq.

Harold D. Clayton, Esq.

The Hon. George C. Colville.

Sir William Conry, Bart.

William 0. Dawes, Esq.

The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Derby, G.C.V.O., C.B.

Sir George Doughty, M,P.

Admiral Sir William Montagu Dowell, G.C.B.

Colonel the Hon. Charles E. Edgcumbe.

Sir Robert Uniaofce Penrose FitzGerald, Bart.

John Bevill Fortescue, Esq.

Lieut. H. T. Gartside-Tipping, R.N.

Admiral Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton, G.C.B.

Harry Hargood, Esq.

The Right Hon. Arnold Morley.

Eugene F. Noel, Esq.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Gerard H. U. Noel K.C.B., K.O.M.G.

Captain Robert Pitman, O.M.G., R.N.

Captain George B. Preston.

Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart.

Colonel the Right Hon. John E. Bernard Seely, D.S.O., M.P.

The Hon. W. P. D. Smith.

Rear-Admiral Hector B. Stewart.

Sir Thomas Sutherland, G.C.M.G.

The Admiral Commanding Coast Guard and Reserves.

The Deputy-Master of the Trinity House.

The Hydrographer of the Admiralty.

J. Herbert Thewlis, Esq.

Alfred G. Topham, Esq.

Francis FitzPaMck Tower, Esq.

Sir William Henry White, K.C.B., F.R.S.

Sir Richard Henry Williams-Bulkeley, Bart.

Sir Allen W. Young, C.B., C.V.O.

Auditors.

Messrs. Price, Waterhouse and Co.

The CHAIRMAN then called upon the Right Hon. Sir George Houston Reid, G.C.M.G., P.O., to move the first Resolution.

Sir GEORGE REID said:—When I received an invitation to come to this meeting and move a Resolution, my first feeling was one of surprise that a man from Australia should be asked to undertake this duty. But my next feeling was one of very great pride to be identified with the proceedings of an Insti- tution whose fame has spread over the whole face of the earth. Now in Australia we are a very young people scattered over a great continent—J think we have about 10,000 miles of coast line—but we are among the communities which have followed the splendid example set by this noble Life-boat Insti- tution so many years ago. Our Life-boats are under the Government, but you can quite understand that in a new country there are many useful and noble undertakings which the Government is compelled to undertake.

But I confess I admire infinitely more the basis upon which this Royal National Life-boat Institution rests. There is in the voluntary effort, the voluntary liberality, and the voluntary zeal which has animated this body in its various Committees for so many years—there is in that a great deal which helps to diffuse good influences, which I think were never more wanted than they are now. This country is a very small one geographically, but its trade is something stupendous. The trade of the United Kingdom is now somewhere about twelve-hundred-and- fifty millions sterling a year, and that is one- huudred-and-forty millions a year more than the combined trade of Germany and France.

Then in the Empire there are nineteen millions of tons under the Red Ensign. Is not that a stupendous thought ? The noble Chairman referred to the fact that English people still love to disparage things in the family circle. I think there is a great deal too much of that. On the other hand there is some good to be got out of it, because complacency in these days of incessant struggle and rivalry is perhaps the worst sort of luxury we can indulge in. Personally I feel grateful to the pessimists for the gruel they give us so often. But I decline to make it a staple article of food. (Laughter.) It is very good as a medicine, but not as a nourishment.

Now the extensive nature of the operations of this Life-boat Institution strike me very much; 283 Life-boats are managed under the various Committees of this national Institu- tion. The number of lives that have been saved, over 50,000, since this Institution was founded is a noble record. At present every year 600 lives are lost around our coasts.

Just think what a great fight this Institution makes when out of 1,300 lives in deadly peril at least 700 every year are saved b/ the men who man the Life-boats of this Institution I I am asked to move :—" That this meeting, fully recognising the important services of the Royal National Life-boat Institution in its national work of life-saving, desires to record its hearty appreciation of the gallantry of the Coxswains and Crews of the Institu- tion's Life-boats, and gratefully to acknow- ledge the valuable help rendered to the cause by the Local Committees, Honorary Secretaries, Honorary Treasurers, and Ladies' Auxiliaries." I am sure that this is a motion which you will carry with very great gratitude. This Institution's operations extend over a great area, they involve a number of difficult matters of detail, and I fancy the manage- ment of the Institution is remarkable in its smooth and efficient working. So we want to thank the Committees. I see there are Ladies' Auxiliary Committees. I think that is a great thing. The enthusiasm of the ladies is priceless, almost always. (Laughter.) But above all we do feel unbounded gratitude to the men who take these Life-boats out, the men who hold their lives at hazard for every storm that breaks upon the coasts of the British Isles. In these days there is a great deal of pleasure seeking, there is a great deal of money making. There is also a great deal of charity and benevolence. But all these things, what are they compared to the matter-of-fact, unobtrusive heroism, the sublime unselfishness of these men who, although their lives are mainly spent on shore, hold them in sacred trust always for those in peril on the sea ? (Cheers.) Sir HENRY CRAIK, K.C.B., M.P., in second- ing the Resolution, said:—It gives me the very greatest pleasure to be present here at the suggestion of jour able Secretary.

The record of the work of this Institution as performed from the time it was founded some 90 years ago is really a wonderful one when we come to think of it. More especially is it when we contrast it, as some of us who look back must, with the fact that within the memory of those who were living when this Institution was founded a wreck upon the coast was counted a gift of Providence out of which the inhabitants ought to make the best they could. But you have brought out another spirit and another aspect of the matter. We, as a maritime nation, into whose hands the great mercantile interests of the world are mainly entrusted, find it our duty, above all other nations, to perform the services rendered by this Institution to the ship wrecked mariner. To many it would appear that this was a national duty to be taken up by national machinery. I am glad above al things, Mr. Chairman, that you have steppeo in. and continued that work without coming within the fetters of State organization ano State control. Nothing can be better than that what can be done by citizens for them- selves should be done by themselves, and not by any State agency. It is absolutely certain that under State agency methods would be cramped, you would be forced to run in certain fixed channels, energy, originality, and enterprise which you get from individuals would be lost, and another considerable matter, not, perhaps, the greatest, your expense, would he enormously increased. I have worked the greater part of my life in State administration; but not its best friends will say that, whatever its virtues, economy is one. (Laughter.) Well, I do not want to occupy.your attention once more with celebrating the self-sacrifice, comradeship and heroism of those who at these 283 centres, all of which have a Life- boat, are showing themselves capable as your crews. But I wish to call attention to that humbler band of sturdy beggars who are working on your behalf. Your work would not go on without the great unseen work, not in the limelight and not celebrated for its heroism, of those who from day to day are doing the spade work, getting the materials for your great enterprise, and bringing the grist to the mill, which would be useless without it. (Hear, hear.) In seconding this motion I would ask you to remember with gratitude, and to stir up by your encouragement, those who, in every corner of this land, are working on your behalf, interesting their neighbours in your cause, and gathering for you those subscrip- tions that are so essential for your purpose.

(Applause.) The CHAIBMAN then put the Resolution to the meeting, and it was carried unanimously.

The Bt. Hon. the EARL WALDEGBAVE, P.O., in moving a vote of thanks to the Chairman, said: Before proposing the vote which I am going to speak to you about, I should like to express, on my own behalf and, as Chairman of the Institution, on behalf of my colleagues on the Committee of Management, my great regret that my predecessor in the Chair, Colonel Sir FitzRoy Clayton, is unable through illness to be here to-day. For a great many years he devoted himself most heartily to this work, and we all wish he was here with us. I feel sure that you will all join heartily with me in wishing him better health and in expressing regret that he is not able to be here to-day.

(Hear, hear.) It is now my great pleasure to ask you to give a vote of thanks to His Grace the Duke of Northumberland for presiding over this meeting to-day. It is most appro- priate that he should be in the Chair, not only because he is at this moment our President, but because of the very important fact that his family have been connected with this Institution almost from its infancy.

In 1851 the Fourth Duke of Northumberland became second President of the Institution and devoted himself most heartily to the work. He offered a prize of one hundred guineas for the best model of a Life-boat, and a further hundred guineas for a Boat built to the approved model selected. This Boat, which was built, I think, by Mr. Beeching, was the first self-righting Life-boat ever built, and may roughly be said to be the origin of the Life-boats of the present day. Ever since this great predecessor, who wan the second President, the family of the Nocthumberlands has shown the greatest interest in the work of this Institution, and we are very glad to have the present Grace as our President and to have him in the Chair to-day. I would ask you all to give him a hearty vote of thanks.

The motion I have the honour to move is : " That the best thanks of this Meeting be given to his Grace the Duke of Northumber- land, K.G., for presiding over this the Eighty eighth Annual General Meeting of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION." Mr. JOHN LAST SATEB, in seconding the motion, said : It is a very great honour to be called upon to second this Resolution. I commenced work for th« City of London Branch under Sir Edward Birkbeck, the late Chairman ot the Institution. In. those days the collections from that Branch only amounted to about 5002. a year. But last year we got about 7,OOW. (Applause.) We hope and trust we shall be able to reach 10,0001. (Applause.) That is our aim, and when we see gentlemen like our Chairman of to-day devoting their time to assisting an Institution whose object is the saving of life, it is very gratifying and encouraging to us, as it must be to all those who are working for the cause. Our work could not go on without the example of out noble leaders, and I have very much pleasure in seconding the Resolution.

The EABL WALDEQBAVE put the motion and it was carried with acclamation.

His Grace the DUKE OF NOBTHUMBEBLAND, K.G., in replying, said: I cordially thank Lord "Waldegrave and Mr. Sayer for putting this Resolution to you, and you, ladies and gentle- men, for the way you have received it. It jives me very great pleasure to do any work it any time I can for our National Institution.

As Lord Waldegrave said, I have almost a Hereditary interest in the Institution, and I aave been a member of the Committee, though [ am afraid a very idle one, for a considerable number of years. I cannot sit down without saying how cordially I endorse what Lord Waldegrave has said of our regret that Colonel Sir FitzRoy Clayton cannot be here this after- noon. As long as my memory carries me jack in connexion with the Institution I cannot remember a time when Sir FitzRoy Clayton was not a leading spirit in its work, iaking the most strenuous and lively interest n its welfare; and I believe there is no one connected with the Royal National Life- oat Institution to whom we owe more than we do to him for its successful position at the 'resent time. (Applause.).