THE ninety-fourth Annual General Meeting of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION was held at Caxton Hall, Westminster, on Friday, 26th April, 1918, at 3 P.M. The Right Hon.

H. H. Asquith, KG., M.P., presided, and amongst those present were:— The Earl Waldegrave, P.O. (Chairman of the Committee of Management), the Countess Waldegrave, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bart., M.P., V.P. (Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Manage- ment), Mrs. Asquith, Sir Edward Coates, Bart., M.P., Mr. F. Cavendish Bentinck, Mr. Robert Birkbeck, the Hon. George Colville, Sir Robert Edgcumbe, Mr. Henry R. Fargus, Sir Johnston Forbes- Sebertson, Maj. - Gen. Sir Coleridge Grove, K.C.B., the Earl of Hardwicke, Sir Woodburn Kirby, Commander Sir Harry Main waring, Bart., R.N.V.R., Mr. H. F. Lancashire, Sir Robert Penrose FitzGerald, Bart., Lady Pen- rose FitzGerald, Sir Herbert Perrott, Bart., C.B., Capt. Robert Pitman, C.M.G., R.N., Engineer Rear-Admiral Charles Rudd, Rear-Admiral Hector B. Stewart, Commander Francis Fitz- Patrick Tower, R.N. V.R., Mr. Havelock Wilson, Mr. George F. Shee, M.A.

(Secretary), Commander Thomas Holmes, R.N. (Chief Inspector of Life-boats), and Mr. P. W. Gidney (Assistant Secretary).

LORD WALDEGRAVE: Before Mr. Asquith opens the ordinary proceedings of our Annual Meeting I have to make an announcement which I think will give great satisfaction to everyone connected with THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, and that is that I have the permission of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to state that he has consented to become the President of the Institution after the conclusion of the war. His Royal Highness feels that while he is on active service abroad he would be unable to give any attention to the affairs of the Institution, so he pre- fers not to assume the office of President of the Institution at present. I trust that it will not be long before he will be able to do so. His Royal Highness follows in the foot- steps of his father and grandfather, who both served as Presidents of the Institution, and gives us another proof of the deep interest which the Royal family have always shown in the work of the Life-boats.

The CHAIRMAN : The Secretary will read a letter from Lord French.

The SECRETARY : MY LORD, It is with extreme regret that I find myself forced by pressure of official duties to cancel my engagement to be present at the Annual Meeting of THE ROYAL NATIONAL -LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION on the 26th, when I was to propose a Resolution expressing the high appreciation of the meeting of the splendid services of the coxswains and crews of the Institution, and of the valuable help rendered by its local Committees and their workers throughout the United Kingdom. My regret is increased by the fact that I shd 4d have regarded it as a privilege to pay a personal tribute to the heroes whose humane services and achieve- ments form a splendid page in our national annals. As Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces, it has been a source of great satisfac- tion to me to learn from time to time that the men of the different battalions stationed on the coast have been able to give valuable help in launching life-boats in circumstances of special difficulty, and I can assure you, on behalf of the Army, that such help has been given with the utmost readiness to men whose courage, endurance and humanity have become proverbial. They possess in the highest degree precisely those qualities which will ensure us victory and an enduring peace. I have the honour to be, my Lord, Your obedient servant, FRENCH, Field-Marshal, Commanding-in-Chief.

The CHAIRMAN: The Annual Report has been circulated, and I believe can be taken as read.

The CHAIRMAN: My Lords, ladies and gentlemen, my friend and colleague, Sir Godfrey Baring, asked me some months ago to take the chair at your Annual Meeting, and, subject to other exigencies, I had very great pleasure in complying with his invita- tion, and I am glad to find that nothing has prevented the fulfilment of that engagement.

We have all listened with very great gratifica- tion to the announcement that has been made by Lord Waldegrave, that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has consented, when the war comes to an end, to take the place of the President of your Institution.

As Lord Waldegrave has said, he has an hereditary interest in the post which has been already held both by his father, our present King, and by his grandfather, King Edward VII.; and, ladies and gentlemen, I think it is fitting and appropriate that the Grown and the representatives of the Royal Family should show, as they always have shown since its first beginnings, their interest in this Society, which calls itself THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION ; and I think it may claim the term "National" as part of its title by as good a right as probably any other society in the country, for it presents in its origin, in its operations, and in its methods, some of the most characteristic of our national qualities and habits. It has existed, I think, for very nearly a hundred years, and during the whole of that time, although it now administers an expenditure of some- thing like £100,000 a year, so far as I am aware it has never received a half-penny of subsidy from the State. It has been an organisation purely voluntary in its character, and very wisely, if I may say so, acting by co-operation between a central body here and local branches in all parts of the country, who bring local knowledge and local experience to bear on the work. It has been a voluntarily organised Association for the saving of life from our shores. During that century, or nearly a century of its existence, it has by these voluntary efforts and energies encircled the coasts of these islands with Life-boat Stations and their necessary equipment.

Still more remarkable (for the Stations and the Life-boats would be nothing without the men) is the fact that it has enlisted and keeps in existence and in activity a voluntary army of coxswains and crews, whose function is not to destroy but to save life. I do not suppose that in the annals of any army, or even of our own illustrious Navy, you would find a more splendid example both of corporate discipline and of individual heroism than amongst those who command and man our Life-boats. Even in those great forces of which we are so proud, now fighting for humanity, and the daily fortunes of whose struggles we follow with such strained and sympathetic interest—even there, as they themselves would be the first to acknowledge, they are only practising in other fields, and with the eyes of the world fixed upon them, the same qualities which these inconspicuous heroes, under conditions as strenuous, as arduous and as testing as can be conceived, are exhibiting year by year, in the saving of life on our coasts.

I see from the Report which we are adopting, that since the foundation of this Institution, I think in the year 1824, it has been instrumental in saving no less than 56,000 lives; and at the end of last year, the year 1917, it had at its disposal and under its control a fleet of 261 Life-boats, of which 19 were motor Life-boats. I note that in passing, because I shall have a word to say about it in a moment. In this last year, the year 1917, the number of lives saved by Life-boats has been 1,156, and 192 by shore boats, or a total of 1,348. That is an actual record in the history of the Institution. Well, we in these days look upon all; our institutions and activities naturally and necessarily in the light of the war, and from that point of view THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION is playing a most honourable and a most effective part. Since the outbreak of the war to the 31st December, 1917, the total number of lives rescued has been. 4,180, and included in that figure the lives rescued from war casualties are 1,372. Up to the same date nearly 150 vessels and boats (this is not lives; they are measured by a different calculus) have been saved, a fact which, as I need not point out to you, is of most material value from the point of view of the transport of our food supplies and our raw material. It is satisfactory to note that although since the war 4 Life-boats have been wrecked, in the year 1917 there was no loss of life among the Life-boat crews, a fact which speaks volumes for the discipline and the intelligence with which their operations have been conducted.

During the winter months of the last year and the present year the Life-boats have been con- stantly launched to the succour of vessels mined or torpedoed, and I do not suppose there has ever been a time in our history when the provisions made by this Institution, both in material and in men, have been of more vital value to the country as a whole. In that connexion (I referred a moment or two ago to the growing use of motor Life-boats) it is important to remember the special difficulties to which the Institution has been exposed by the abnormal conditions of the last two or three years. Those conditions have operated in two distinct ways. In the first place it has been increasingly difficult to keep up and to increase the supply of motor Life-boats. As we all know, the most vital call upon the man-power of the country at t *~ moment (it has been true now for eighteen months) is for the purposes of shipbuilding, not only for the Navy, but for making good the losses caused by the submarine and mine warfare among our mercantile marine, and of necessity even those who like this Institution are preferring claims (in our case for the construction of motor Life-boats) which would have been recognised under normal conditions as of prior urgency and even necessity, have had to some extent to postpone and defer them for the larger national claims. I believe, from what I read in the Report, that that, which is, after all, as we hope, a very temporary condition of things, is being provided for at the moment at any rate by pressing into the service motor- boats which, though not Life-boats in the full and complete sense of the term, are yet i available at least as ancillary and auxiliary forces for the saving of life.

Now there is another, a second, and perhaps in some ways a still more important difficulty with which the work of the Institution has had to contend, and that is the draining away, under the national call, of the men who under normal conditions would have manned and equipped and in some "--les commanded the Life-boats.

They have Bad to go into other forms of service, some into the Navy, some into the Mercantile Marine, and some into trawlers and drifters and other classes of small craft which we know, from what we have been reading the last few days, played such a magnificent part in our naval operations. I am told that the withdrawal of the younger members of the crews of the Life-boats have been upon so large a scale that the average age of the crews is now well over 50, while the work which they have to perform is more strenuous, more arduous, and more unremitting than at any previous time in the history of this Insti- tution.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, these are facts which speak for themselves ; they do not re- quire to be adorned or embroidered with rhetoric. Even among the innumerable and sometimes competitive claims which the various exigencies of the war have advanced and pressed forward upon the charity and public spirit of the country, I venture to say that the claim of THE NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION ought not to be forgotten. Both directly and indirectly, looking at matters as we necessarily have to do in these days from the point of view of the war alone, the main- tenance of the full efficiency both of its fleet and of its crews is a matter of vital necessity to the country. The cost of a motor Life-boat is, I think, £5,000—prices have risen—and in order not only to provide such a boat, but what is equally important, to safeguard its future in the shape of a permanent endow- ment, the cost now amounts to over £11,000.

Well, I daresay some of you lately have been reading the Budget with varied feelings of interest and apprehension, but when you come to deal with or to consider the stu- pendous figures which our National expendi- ture has now reached, when you reflect that, as we were told in the House of Commons last night, the annual expenditure of the Ministry of Munitions alone is over £600,000,000, a sum which very nearly equals the total capital of the whole national debt at the outbreak of the war, these comparatively modest claims of £5,000, £10,000 or £11,000 ought not to pass unheeded. It is very difficult to make up one's mind which among the many rival appeals to charity, philanthropy, and public spirit ought to take the first place, and I do not profess to be able to assign in any degree priority among them. But of this I am certain—that those who have money to spare, and the will to spend it in the manner they think best fitted to promote the common interest of the country and of the war, will realise that the claims of this Institution ought to take a very high place. I commenced by assuming the Report to have been adopted, and I now call on the Secretary to read the names of those who are to be elected to office, and (an equally interesting feature in our proceedings) the records of the deeds by which the medals that are going to be awarded have been won.

The SECRETARY read the nominations.

President.

His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, K.G.

Vice-Presidents.

His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, G.C.V.O.

His Grace the Duke of Leeds.

His Grace the Duke of Portland, E.G., G.C.V.O.

The Most Hon. the Marquis of Ailsa.

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

The Right Hon. the Earl of Bosebery, K.G., K.T.

The Right Hon. the Earl Waldegrave, P.O.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Plymouth, P.O., C.B.

Admiral the Right Hon. the Lord Beresford, G.O.B., G.C.V.O., G.B.E.

The Right Hon. the Lord Strathclyde, P.O., LL.D.

Sir Robert Uniacke Penrose PitzGerald, Bart.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bart., M.P.

Robert Birkbeck, Esq.

Treasurer.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Harrowby Committee of Management.

The President.

The Vice-Presidents.

The Treasurer.

The Right Hon. the Earl Waldegrave, P.O., V.P., Chairman.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bart., M.P., V.P.,Deputy- Ohairman.

The Right Hon. the Lord Airedale.

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

Frederick Cavendish Bentinck, Esq.

Captain Charles J. P. Cave.

Kenneth M. Clark, Esq.

Harold D. Clayton, Esq.

Major Sir Edward Feetham Coates, Bart., M.P.

The Hon. George Colville.

Sir William Corry, Bart.

Colonel William Elliot, C.B.

Henry R. Fargus, Esq.

John Bevill Fortescue, Esq.

Major-General Sir Coleridge Grove, K.O.B.

The Right Hon. the Viscount Hambleden.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Hardwicke.

Harry Hargood, Esq.

Admiral the Right Hon. the Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O.

Vice-Admiral Sir Colin Keppel, K.C.I.E., K.O.V.O., C.B., D.S.O.

Sir Woodburn Kirby.

Brigadier-General Noel M. Lake, C.B.

Herbert F. Lancashire, Esq.

Charles Livingston, Esq.

Commander Sir Harry Mainwaring, Bart., R.N.V.R.

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

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

Captain George B. Preston.

Vice-Admiral Reginald Charles Prothero, M.V.O., C.B.

Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart., F.B.S.

Engineer Rear-Admiral Charles Rudd.

The Right Hon. Walter Bunoiman, M.P.

Brigadier-General the Right Hon. John E.

Bernard Seely, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., M.P.

Rear-Admiral Hector B. Stewart.

The Bight Hon. the Lord Sydenham, G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E., G.B'E., P.B.S.

The Admiral Commanding Coast Guard and Reserves (Vice-Admiral Sir Cecil P. Thursby, K.C.M.G.).

The Deputy Master of the Trinity House (Captain Sir Herbert Acton Blake, K.C.V.O.).

The Hydrographer of the Admiralty (Rear- Admiral John P. Parry, B.N.).

Alfred G. Topham, Esq.

Commander Francis Fitzpatrick Tower, B.N.V.B.

Sir Philip Watts, K.C.B., P.B.S.

Commodore Sir Richard Henry Williams- Bulkeley, Bart., B.N.B.

Auditors.

Messrs. Price, Waterhouse & Co.

The CHAIRMAN : I presume that all those names will be approved. There is one in particular which I noticed, as the Secretary read them, and which, I am sure, will receive a special measure of approval, because I believe it appears for the first time on the list, and that is the name of Lord Jellicoe, to whom this country is under as great a debt of grati- tude as to any other living man.

(The presentation of medals then took place.) The Silver Medal of the Institution was awarded to JAMES GILL, and the Bronze Medal of the Institution to B. J. TREBILCOCK, the Coxswain and Second Coxswain of the Newquay (Cornwall) Life-boat in the follow- ing circumstances:— On the 17th December last a strong N.E.

gale was blowing, with a heavy sea, and a steamer named the Osten, of Denmark, was observed drifting in a helpless condition.

The weather had been wild throughout the previous night and the regular Coxswain of the Life-boat, who had recently been appointed, was of opinion that it would be impossible to launch the Life-boat as the gale was dead on to the slipway, one of the steepest on the coast. The ex-Coxswain of the boat, James Gill, however, appeared on the scene when the question of launching the boat was under discussion, and stated that he had been out in worse weather and offered to take charge of the boat on this occasion.

Everything was at once prepared and the boat was lowered down the slipway. As she entered the water, and before she could gather way, she was struck by a sea and thrown on her beam ends. The boat at once righted herself, but a succession of heavy seas over- powered her, and she drifted into a position under the cliff. Before the crew could do anything to help themselves the boat was dashed on to the rooks and smashed to pieces.

Fortunately, the men were able to get a rope to the shore and the onlookers rushed to their assistance, and all the men were landed in a very exhausted condition. They had had a very narrow escape of losing their lives, and some of them being severely injured; but happily they all recovered from their very trying experience, although some of them were laid up for weeks.

In this case the regular Coxswain hesitated to put to sea, but the ex-Coxswain felt that the men on board the vessel required help,, and, regardless of the danger run, he set an example of self-sacrifice which nearly cost him his life. In appreciation of his gallantry, the Committee have awarded him the Silver Medal of the Institution, and have also given to B. J. Trebilcock, the second Coxswain, who nobly seconded Gill's efforts, the Bronze Medal of the Institution. Trebilcock has also been promoted Coxswain on recognition of his action on this occasion.

The Silver Third Service Clasp was awarded to GEORGE J. GRIGSON, Coxswain of the Clacton Life-boat, and the Bronze Medal to JESSE SALMON, the Second Coxswain, for the following service:— On the 27th-28th December, shortly before midnight, the Swedish Steamer Iris, whilst bound from Gothenburg to Boueu, stranded on the Longsand, and the Albert Edward promptly proceeded to her assistance.

The weather was bitterly cold with snow squalls, with a very rough sea, and the wind was blowing a strong gale to the East. The vessel was found to have 11 feet of water in the engine room, and there was very little hope of her being got off the sands. The Master of the vessel, however, declined to leave his vessel, but during the day the weather became worse until the seas were washing the vessel fore and aft. The Master then reluctantly decided to leave the wreck.

The work of rescue was effected with great difficulty and danger, the crew of the unfortunate vessel being obliged to jump into the Life-boat as opportunity offered. Clacton was not reached until 11.30 P.M., and, by that time, the whole of the crew were numbed from their 24 hours' exposure in the icy cold weather.

The Silver Medal was awarded to Coxswain WILLIAM HAMMOND, of the Walton Life-boat, and the Bronze Medal to Second Coxswain JOHN 0. BYFOBD, in recognition of a- splendid service performed' in rescuing 92 persons from the S.S. Peregrine, which also stranded on the Longsand. The Boat was called out at 10.30 P.M. on the 29th December, the weather being very much the same as it was in the Clacton case. When the Life-boat reached the vessel heavy seas were breaking over her, and six attempts were made before the Life-boat succeeded in getting alongside.

All the boats had been washed away from the steamer with the exception, of one, and this one the men on board were unable to lower into the sea. Without loss of time the whole of the passengers, 59 in number, who were mostly women and children, were taken into the Life-boat, together with one of the crew, and conveyed to a Patrol Vessel which had come out to the vessel's assistance, but could not get near her on account of the dangerous sands. The operation was a most difficult one owing to the heavy seas and the intense darkness, but thanks to the skilful manner in which the Life-boat was handled, the work was accomplished without mishap. The Life- boat at once returned to the steamer, which in the meanwhile had parted amidships and become a total wreck, and as soon as it was possible the remainder of persons on board—• 32 in number, were saved. During this fine piece of rescue work the Life-boat was severely damaged.

In addition to letters expressing the grati- tude of the Owners and the Captain of the vessel, an expression of appreciation was received from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, who wrote stating they considered that great credit was due to the Life-boatmen for their gallant and successful work.

SIR EDWARD GOATES: Mr. Chairman, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, I have the honour to propose the following resolution which should have been proposed by Lord French, but you have heard from the Chair- man the reasons why he is unable to attend this afternoon. " 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 Institution's Life-boats, and gratefully to acknowledge the valuable help rendered to the cause by the Local Committees, Honorary Secretaries, Honorary Treasurers, and Ladies' Auxiliaries," to which I should like to add the Staff of the Life-Boat Institution here in London. Well, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, I think that the resolution which I have the honour to propose is really a fitting framework to the very simple picture which we have just witnessed when the Chairman presented medals to these courageous and dauntless seamen. But, after all, the ceremony itself was a simple one, and, simple as it was, it was a real symbol of the simplicity and unaffected courage with which these men take their lives in their hands and go out to sea to rescue those who are in peril. I think that so far as they are concerned they only want three or four words. " Man the Life-boat " is enough for them. Be the weather fair or be it foul, sunshine or rain, whatever it may be, they throw that aside; they take to their boats and they battle with the elements in order that they may save the lives of those at sea.

Now we are an Institution for saving life, and we must all recognise that if we want to save life. life must be risked to do it; and we call upon these brave men to risk their lives, and they do risk their lives in order that they may save the lives of others. Now this we are proud as an Institution to know has been the tradition for nearly a hundred years, and ever since this Institution was started we have been always ready, always mobilised, in peace or war at a moment's notice to take to sea to save life. There has been no preparation required. We have always been ready, and, as your Chairman said, dotted about our coasts we have these 261 Life-boats, each of those boats having its crew. But during the war, owing to the exigencies and requirements of our men to join the Navy and the mine- sweepers and other vocations necessary for the war, we have been obliged in some places to close the Life-boat stations. We have not had the men to man the Life-boat, and you can imagine the difficulty and anxiety which the Committees in the neighbourhood have had to undergo, knowing that possibly the Life- boat might be required, and that the men were not there to man her. Now, in the Report (I do not know whether it came before the Meeting last year) I have read a very marvellous and courageous act by the Cromer Life-boat in rescuing valuable lives from the Pyrin and the Fernebo. Though some of you may have heard of it, some may not. It is such a gallant deed that I would like to repeat it. These men (and our Chairman has spoken with regard to the average age of our men), over the age oi 50, were called out in a great heavy north-east gale to go to a little ship which had stranded. Well, after a great deal of trouble they reached the ship, and they saved 16 lives; and as they rowed home another ship driving ashore in the neighbour- hood ran on a mine and was blown, not to pieces, but in halves. The Life-boat crew landed their 16 men, and then they put out again in this raging sea, and they rowed towards the ship. They tried for an hour or more to reach her, but they could not do so; exhausted, they came back again. They tried again to reach her, and, exhausted, they came back again. The third time the same men tried again. This time they rowed to the ship, and they saved every soul on board.

Well now, that is my idea of real pluck, and it is the pluck which we now read of day by day in that khaki line in Prance and Flanders.

What are they doing but manning the life- boat? They are manning the life-boat to save the ship of State which has as its cargo the honour of this country and the freedom of the world; and those men fighting there are blood-brothers of this class of men which we have seen before us. Now, ladies and gentle- men, I am sure you will approve of an action which the Committee have taken with regard to our crews. You know the arduous and hazardous life they lead when they go out in our Life-boats. Unfortunately, in years past we have had serious losses. Men in the execution of their duty have unfortunately been drowned or killed, and then there have always been their relatives to consier. Up to recently it had always been our custom to make a grant of a lump sum to the widows and orphans; but we have realised that that really is not a wise proceeding. Experience has taught us that when we give a large sum of money to people who possibly are not accustomed to holding a large sum of money, instead of its being wisely and properly in- vested it has been possibly frittered away, and has not donE the real good that we ourselves intended when we made the presentation.

We have now come to the conclusion that we 'will have a broad pension scheme for the widows and orphans of men who might un- happily be drowned in our service, and we have, therefore, instituted a pension scheme, founded on the Royal warrant for the Navy and Army, and we think that by doing that we are not only doing justice to the men in our employ, but we are really following out the dictates and desires of those who are our subscribers and supporters.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to say that Life-boat Day last year was a very successful day for us in London, and that we collected a sum of something like £8,700.

Still, the financial needs are very great, and, although as you will see by the accounts, a considerable sum of money has gone to the General Account, your Chairman has told you of calls which we shall have upon our pocket, upon our purse, upon our bank, if we want to keep abreast of the times and have enough motor-boats. Well, we do consider, after well thinking this matter over, that we must keep abreast of the times, and that we must have, when the war is over, a considerable fleet of motor-boats. I think it must appeal to all of you present here to-day that things are altering—things will never be the same after the war as they were before the war.

We shall never go back to the old times.

Now, let us take the question of the sea and THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION.

Before the war all that our Life-boat men had to do was to save life from near our coasts- wrecks, strandings, founderings—but science has developed during the war, and I do not doubt that' after the war we shall not only have passengers on ships going across the sea as in olden times, but we shall have them passing under the sea in submarine vessels, and possibly over the sea in aeroplane passenger vessels. Now, that may come or it may not, but, at any rate, I use those examples rather to fflfctify me in asking for the support, not only of those whom I see before me to-day, but also of the whole of the country, to help the Committee to find the large sum of money necessary for this fleet of motor-boats, which your Chairman has mentioned. The sum of money that we shall require if we are to do this thing properly is between £350,000 and £400,000—a large sum of money, but it is a great object. Your Chairman has told you now necessary it is that we should have these boats for saving life around our shores. How many lives would have been saved now on the South Coast and on the East Coast had we had motor-boats ? We only had 19. Now, if we had had motor-boats instead of rowing- boats our motor-boats would have gone to a torpedoed ship in the distance to save lives there, which, unfortunately, were lost because we could not get there soon enough. At any rate, we ask for your help. If I might make a suggestion, founded on what the Chairman has just said, many of us—I fear, alas 1 too many of us—have lost those near and dear to us in the war, and in many ways we would like to commemorate them. And how can we do better than commemorate those who have lost their lives by some scheme of com- memoration which may help others to save lives in the future ? I would ask the public generally if they would take that into con- sideration. When they do wish to com- memorate any dear one, or if a few families wish to commemorate many dear ones, they might think of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION and find us money for a motor-boat. I simply throw out that sugges- tion, ladies and gentlemen, in the hope that you may deem that I am justified in doing so.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, we want—and we always have wanted—that the Life-boat should be the light patrols of our Merchant Service—a link between our ships passing near our coasts and the shore, a link which will create confidence in the minds of our sailors, if they know that they are on a lee shore and things look black and bad, that they can just turn to our Institution and get our help and assistance. I am delighted to know that on my right-hand I have a colleague of mine from the House of Commons who I will address you presently—Mr. Havelock Wilson; and, ladies and gentlemen, I have very much pleasure in placing before you the resolution which I have the honour to propose, and I hope you will kindly accept it.

SIR JOHNSTON FORBES-ROBERTSON : Mr. Asquith, ladies, my lords and gentlemen, it is my great privilege to second the resolution so eloquently put before you by the last speaker.

In a sort of way I think perhaps I am entitled to have this honour, and the reason is that very many years ago, when I was a boy, it so came about that I found myself a member of a Life-boat crew off the coast of Cornwall, and I actually sat rowing, pulling a great sweep, with. the type of men we have just seen—those six men that we have had the privilege of looking upon; and though my experience, my lords and gentlemen, was very small, still I realised to the full, I think, the terrors that these men daily face. I had some sort of idea of what our men go through on all our coasts.

I was very proud, ladies and gentlemen, to be in that position, but I frankly tell you that I was in an awful funk. Well, now then, the question is the money. We have got to get the money, ladies and gentlemen, some- how. Heaven knows the calls upon us all are very hard at present. Daily we get appeals that we feel we must supply; we must help.

But here is an Institution, which is second to none, that we have to subscribe to at various times. I can conceive only the wants and the desires, and the help that we must supply to i our wounded and our Empire, as being I superior to this wonderful Institution, which, | as your Chairman has told you, has been going | on now for nigh upon a hundred years. These are the backbone of our people. The British ( stock was shown you just now—the finest type | of man—in those six men who came up and | took the medals from our Chairman.

It seems to me that what the last speaker 1 said about a memorial is most happy and proper. Many, as he said, in our poor suffering country arc under the shadow of a great sorrow—the loss of a son, a husband, or a father, who has fallen away. They want some symbol. The spirit yearns for some symbol, as human nature always does, and they seek that symbol in some painted light in some church, or some graceful monument by some distinguished sculptor. We are going to have a symbol very soon to our beloved Edith Cavell.

These are great symbols, but as the last speaker pointed out to you, surely this is a better way to spend the money, if we want to make a memorial to our beloved dead, because, ladies and gentlemen, it is a live symbol, a live memorial, that is dancing upon the waves on our shores. It seems to me that it must be far more gratifying to those who can afford the money, to spend it on a boat, or part of a boat, than upon some stained glass, or monument, or cross, as the case may be. We must go out of this room, ladies and gentlemen, out into the highways and byways, and call out for help for this great Institution. Each one of us, if we go out with the determination that as the term goes, they are a splendid type of man, a splendid type of manhood, there is no question about it. Well, now, ladies and gentlemen, money is the great question.

Money we must have, and therefore, as I said before, and I repeat it now, let us go out with a firm determination, with a will, all the time declaring that we will get this money, and we shall get it within the year. Of this I am persuaded.

I have great pleasure in seconding this resolution.

MR. HAVELOCK WILSON : My lords, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to be here to-day. I come representing 250,000 men of the Mercantile Marine. We want specially, sir, to tender our thanks to the Committee and tbc members of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION for what they have done for us in past years, and what I am sure they are going to do in future.

Now, sir, you said in your address that the Institution has a just title to claim to be , 0 "National"; well, I go beyond that, sir. I we shall get a few shillings, or a few pounds, think it has a just claim to say it is " Interas the case maybe, will get it. We have only j national," because when those hardy men of got to will it, ladies and gentlemen, as we ! the coast see a ship in distress they do not pass out of this house, and we shall have it, ' and we shall have the money eventually for these motor-boats, which are so important.

We, as the last speaker said, must advance with the times. Everything is increasing.

All these wonderful inventions are doubtful advantages, I may say, but still we have to endure them; and therefore such an Institution as this Life-Boat Institution must face the music, so to speak, and must be prepared with the latest inventions and the latest appliances to save life at sea.

Now we have also to remember how much we owe to the honorary secretaries and the honorary treasurers all over this country.

They are doing admirable work, people in their particular districts realise how they are devoting their lives to this splendid cause; and this company here should bear in mind and render thanks to these honorary secretaries and honorary treasurers ; and we inquire for one moment what is the nationality of the men on board; they simply go out to rescue life, regardless of nationality.

That brings me to the one great point with regard to the men of the sea. A good many people do not understand what we call the brotherhood of the sea. Now you have a sample to-day in those men who come here modestly and receive their medals; they do not care much about what they have done.

I do not suppose it troubled them a bit—they are used to it; but to us who fully recognise what it means, it was a great deal. You have in those men here a sample of all seafaring men. The same thing applies upon the wide Only a few and mighty ocean when ships are in distress.

—"Men never inquire for one moment the nationality of the men who are in trouble."

The great anxiety with them is to rescue, even at the risk and expense of their own lives. Well, I know of no Institution in this must also bear in mind that they are doubly country which has done more good for the hard worked, inasmuch as we can no longer send naval men to inspect the different stations and drill the men for their work at sea. Therefore, a great deal more trouble and anxiety falls upon these people, who give their services freely. Now, THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION has been breeding all these years, as the last speaker told you, that men of the sea than THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. It is always a grand thing—when you are on a lee shore and there is not much hope for you, the waves dashing round you, and the rocks on the lee side of you, and it looks pretty black— to suddenly remember that you are on a part of the coast where there is the kind of Life splendid type of man, and we have seen six j boat men who do the deeds that have been examples. They are the fine British stock. | referred to to-day, fellows that will go out And it is not only the question of saving life at sea which is so important, but it is the question of instilling into the minds of our people the splendid character of these seamen, that their sons may follow them in the same way—that they may make fine stock, that they may remain a splendid breed, and that it should be that breed that is the life and soul of our Empire. That is the grit, ladies and gentlemen, of the British Empire and of all our Colonies. Although " we say it as shouldn't," and have a try, and if they do not get there, and are driven back by wind and wave, will have another try; there is the same result, and they go again. Now that is the true manhood and grit of the men of the sea; and it is always a satisfaction to those who travel the wide and mighty ocean to feel that if they get on the rock-bound shores of coasts like ours there are men on watch—men ready to give assistance and come to their rescue. Well, THE, ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION has done magnificent work for nearly a ! hundred years now, and I am sure that in the near future, as has been well said by my ', friend, provision will have to be made for ! motor-boats. Considerable sums of money [ will be required to do that. We all know | that to-day there are many appeals, and I ! think deserving appeals, for one thing or another, but I feel sure that the great British public, fully realising the great services that seamen have rendered to the British Empire, will not forget THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION. i The CHAIRMAN : Ladies and gentlemen, you have heard the resolution moved and seconded. ; Those in favour will hold up their hands. On [ the contrary ? Carried unanimously. - LORD WALDEGRAVE : My lords, ladies and gentlemen, after the many eloquent speeches I you have heard, and as I have rather a bad cold, I hope you will not expect me to speak very long, but I have much pleasure in rising to move a very hearty vote of thanks to Mr.

Asquith for kindly sparing the time to come and preside here to-day in this able manner.

THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION is truly national, and we have no politics in our work. We have had as Presidents of our Annual Meetings leading statesmen of every type and class, and they have all taken the greatest interest in the work. I very much regret that Lord French has been unable, owing to his absence in Ireland, to be here to-day, a regret which, as you have heard from his letter, he most sincerely shares. I only hope that he will be with us next year.

You have heard to-day, what you probably knew before, that our Life-boats have done much good work during the war in saving soldiers and seamen who have been in peril through the action of enemy submarines and mines. I only hope that when the war is over we may be permitted by the authorities to make public the details of those services in a more complete manner than we have been allowed to hitherto. You have heard that Lord Jellicoe has just joined our Committee, and I am sure that his qualities and knowledge will be most valuable to us. I know that he heartily appreciates the war services of our boats. The Institution has not done badly in the past year considering the times, but it may be hit hard in the future with increased taxation and the many worthy war appeals to which other speakers have alluded.

I can only back up what has been said by Sir Edward Coates, Sir Johnston Forbes- Robertson, and others, and say that it behoves every friend of the Life-boats to do his utmost to obtain new subscribers to the cause. I think the suggestion of the motor-boat as a memorial is a most excellent one. It is always a pleasure to me to meat a British seaman of any rank, and, as Chairman of the Committee of Management, I cordially welcome, as I am sure you all do, the presence of some of the gallant men who have won medals in the past year. I know how pleased you are to see them coming here and receiving their honours at the hands of Mr.

Asquith before this distinguished assembly.

With these few remarks I beg to move a vote of thanks, and I ask Sir Godfrey Baring to second it.

Sir GODFREY BARING : Mr. Asquith, ladies, my lords and gentlemen, I have very great pleasure in seconding the vote of thanks which has been moved by Lord Waldegrave. Although I have for some long years past had the honour and privilege of supporting Mr. Asquith in a place not very far from this hall, under conditions rather more contentious and disagreeable, I have never yet had the opportunity of vocally taking part in moving the adoption of a vote of thanks to our honourable friend.

I say " vocally " advisedly, because I have on countless occasions in the silence and solitude of my own heart moved, seconded and carried unanimously a vote of thanks to our Chairman to-day. We should wish to thank Mr. Asquith not only for the speech which he has made, but also for his presentation of those medals to the coxswains of the Life-boats. Sir Edward Coates, in his admirable speech, told you of the difficulties under which the Committee of Management are carrying on their work during the war. You will readily understand that one of the greatest of our difficulties has been to meet the serious drain upon our man-power resources—to use a fashionable expression—by the substitution of older men for the young men who have had to go to war work. I have heard with regard to my own age, to my sorrow and pain, the gibes that were hurled at the middle-aged in the House of Commons a short time ago in the discussion on the Man-Power Bill. One gentleman asked if it was " really proposed to put these old bones in the trenches?" And to my fevered imagination he seemed to indicate myself. Another honourable gentleman talked about " Conscripting these battalions of grandfathers." Well, I should have liked to have taken these detractors from the glories of middle-age to the beach at Cromer, when the wonderful service, which was described by Sir Edward Coates, took place—in fact, three separate services—by a crew whose ages averaged 55 years. I think that these detractors from middle-age would have found that those men, if they may have lost something in activity, have lost nothing in the matchless skill, undaunted courage, and cheerful self-sacrifice which animated thqjfin their earlier years. Let us make no mistake.

If the efficiency or the courage or the skill of our crews of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION was ever to decrease, why, then, all our Vice-Presidents and our Committee of Management and our Governors would be a mere pretentious hyppcrisy. But in the long record of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION—extending now for nearly a hundred years—these men have never failed in their duty in the past, and they will not fail in their duty in the future; and as long as men go down to the sea in ships, our Lifeboat men will continue to do their duty ; and it is because, sir, your words to-day have been a reward to these men for their past services, an encouragement to them in the present, and an inspiration in the future, that the Governors of the Institution would wish to extend to you their most cordial and grateful thanks.

LORD WALDEGRAVE : Ladies and gentlemen, I have to put to you, " That the best thanks of this Meeting be given to the Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, K.C., M.P., for presiding over this Ninety-fourth Annual General Meeting of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITU- TION." Those in favour will please signify the same in the usual way. On the contrary ? Carried unanimously.

THE CHAIRMAN : I am much obliged to you, Lord Waldegrave, and my friend Sir Godfrey Baring, for the kind terms in which you have commended this Resolution to the Meeting, and to the Meeting for passing it. It has been a very great pleasure to me to hare the opportunity of associating myself with the work of this Institution to-day ; and I should like, if I may, in a final word, to commend the suggestion which was so eloquently pressed, amongst other speakers, by my friend Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, that no better memorial to those who have fallen in the war could be devised or carried out to com- memorate the affection and gratitude of those who survive them than the provision and endowment of these appliances, not for the destruction, but for the saving of life. I thank you very much.