UNITED STATES.

THE Annual Report of the United States Life-Saving Service for the year ending 30th June, 1912, has been received, and we extract the following details.

Attention is drawn to the fact that only 16 lives were lost on the coast (which includes, of course, the great lakes). In the year under review 444 were " succoured," but as was pointed out in our issue of May, 1912, it is impossible to ascertain from the United States Annual Report what is the precise meaning of this term. Apparently it includes not only the saving of life, but the housing, clothing and feeding of persons who had been landed from vessels in distress.

One new Life-Saving Station was completed during the year under review, viz., at Green Hill, making the total number of Stations 284. Of these 203 are on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, 61 on the coasts of the great lakes, 1 at the Falls of Ohio, and 19 on the Pacific coast.

Great stress is laid upon the " remarkable growth in the work of the Service and the admirable results achieved . . .

in recent years . . . due to the employment of power boats at the Stations, which has made it possible to travel longer distances and to pay less regard to j weather conditions than formerly, in responding to calls from distressed vessels." The crews of the Life-Saving Estabi lishment performed service on 1,671 ! occasions during the year, and it is j stated that out of 3,678 conveyed ! ashore or to other places of safety from I vessels meeting disaster during the ! year, 2,669, or 73 per cent., were 1 transported by power craft, or, as we j say, Motor Boats alone.

During the year, 12 36-ft. Selfrighting and Self-bailing Motor Boats and 14 Beebe-McLellan Motor Surfj boats were built and put in commission, ' making the total number of Motor Boats and Motor Surf-boats in use at the end of the year 109, viz., 28 36-ft. Lifeboats, 42 34-ft. Life-boats, 39 Motor Surf-boats.

FRANCE.

IN 1912 there were 112 Life-boat Stations, all of which are provided with the Rocket Life-saving Apparatus, as well as Life-boats. The Society has one Steam Life-boat and, at present, three Motor Life-boats.

During the year 1912 537 persons were saved, 261 of these (and 33 vessels) being saved by Life-boats, 19 by the Rocket Apparatus, and 257 " by other means." The total number of lives saved, for which the Society has given rewards since its establishment in 1865, is 20,660.

Of these 16,086 have been saved by the Life-boats or other apparatus of the Society, and 4,574 by other means.

GERMANY.

THE Annual Report of the Deutsche Gesellsohaf t zur Rettung Schiffbriichiger states that the Life-boats were launched 34 times during the year 1913 and that 110 persons were saved, 97 by means of Life-boats and 13 by the rocket apparatus.

This brings the total number of these saved by the Society since its foundation in 1865 to 3,870. The Society now has 133 life-saving stations, the additions being the double stations at Schonbergerstrand and Gromitz in Holstein and Laase in Pomerania, and the stations on the Island of Riigen and at the estuary of the Atmath. Eightysix of the stations are on the Baltic and 47 in the North Sea. Sixty-four are double stations, that is, they are provided both with Life-boats and rocket apparatus, 52 are Life-boat stations only, and 17 rocket apparatus stations only.

The Society now has five open motorboats and five decked motor-boats with auxiliary sail power.

The report draws attention to the fact that there has been a considerable drop in the income of the Society.

THE NETHERLANDS.

" THE Reddingboot," the magazine of the Noord-en Zuid-Hollandsche Redding- Maatschappij, states that this Society, which was founded in 1824, now has 30 life-saving stations, with 34 Life-boats, including 2 Motor Life-boats and 20 rocket life-saving apparatuses. The Society has been the means of saving 4,400 lives since its foundation. The Annual Report, which is contained in the July issue of " The Reddingboot," states that the expenditure exceeded the income by 2,820 florins. In the next issue of the Life-boat Journal we hope to give an account of the two powerful motor boats, The Brandaris, which belongs to this Society, and the 76 h.p. motor boat, the Maria Carolina BlanJcerheim, which belongs to the South Holland Company for rescuing shipwrecked persons.

SPAIN.

THE Journal of the Spanish Life-boat Society for the quarter ending June, 1913, gives a summary of the present position of its affairs, from which we take the following details. The Society was founded in 1880, and was declared to be " of public utility" in January, 1887. It has 38 Life-boats and 52 stations provided with rocket lifesaving apparatus. A Roberts motorboat, with 50—60 h.p., has recently been acquired as an experiment.

Since the foundation of the Society 1,318 lives and 83 vessels have been saved, while rewards have been given for the saving of 9,211 persons by other means. 10 gold medals, 652 silver medals, 1,851 bronze medals, and 108,807 pesetas have been awarded for the saving of life.

The Report states that four new stations have been created, while one has been closed; but it is added that, in order to provide fully for the needs of the Spanish coast, at least fifty, " if not 120," stations are needed. The Report deplores the apathy of the Spanish public with reference to maritime needs, and states that in spite of the propaganda of the Society its efforts in this direction seem to produce no result; for public charity appears to be confined to the misfortunes and the needs which meet the eye, while those which, like loss of life at sea, are remote from the observation of the man in the street, fail to move him, or to elicit the support to which they are entitled.

The ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION has itself had cause to recognise the truth of the statements thus included in the official Report of the Spanish Society; but, fortunately, the British public has become far more alive to the needs of the Life-boat Service and to its great claims upon their generous support. We trust that the heartfelt appeal of the Spanish Society will find an echo among the people of Spain.

NORWAY.

THE Report of the Norsk Selskab til i Skibbrudnes Redning for 1912-1913 states that 48 lives and 16 vessels were saved in the year 1912. Two new Life- : boats were placed on their Stations, and the total number now maintained is 23.

i NOTE.—Other Reports are held over owing j to pressure of space.— EDITOR, Life-boat Journal..