" / have given all those fifty badges out, and now am wanting many more as I have more new members to give them to, and also many of the old workers are very anxious to join. .. .

I am quite sure that the Guild is a great attraction, and the workers feel that Headquarters are really ' taking notice of them.' "—FROM A STATION* BRANCH." Those to whom I have been able to send their Certificates and Badges are delighted about the Ladies' Life- boat Guild, and 'proud' to be mem- bers. ... It is like a tonic to the work here."—FROM A FINANCIAL BRANCH.

THESE two quotations from letters re- ceived from two of the largest and most successful Branches of the Institution, as well as the reports from other Branches, describing not only the launching of the Guild, but the actual work which its members have already done, go far to confirm the hope with which the idea of a Ladies' Life- boat Guild was started, that it would be a real encouragement and incentive to Life-boat workers.

On one point, however, there has evidently been a slight misunderstand- ing with regard to the purpose and working of the Guild, and it will be as well to remove this at once. In a number of places, where meetings were held in response to the Duchess of Portland's request, the opinion was expressed that it was a mistake to add to the already large number of charitable organi- zations, and that it would be better to continue working for the Institution without joining a separate Guild. So fully does the Institution share this feeling that when the Guild was first discussed all idea of a separate organi- zation was at once set aside, and the Duchess of Portland, in her letter to the Branches, wrote that it was not proposed to have " any central organiza- tion." It should be made clear that, for the same reason, there is no idea of forming separate organizations locally, that is to say, of having Branches of the Guild as distinct from the existing Branches of the Institution. The inten- tion is simply to bring all women workers into closer touch with each other and with the Honorary Secretaries and Com- mittees of the Branches in virtue of the fact that they will be recognised as members of a Guild.The Inaugural Meeting of the Guild was held in London on the 21st June, at Claridge's Hotel, at the invitation of the President, the Duchess of Port- land, who took the chair, and who de- livered an address on the aims of the Guild. The other speakers were Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., the Deputy-Chair- man of the Institution, Lady Baring, Lady Cynthia Colville, and Mr. George F. Shee, M.A., the Secretary of the Institution. This inaugural meeting was immediately followed by two others in and near London, one at Hampstead Garden Suburb and the other at St.

Albans, both of which are reported in " News from the Branches." In the case of the first, the launching of the Guild coincided with the formation of a new Branch, and in the second with the revival of a Branch where, for some years, little had been done.

; In the South of England the Guild 1 has been warmly welcomed at East- , bourne, where, as is reported elsewhere, I a record sum was raised by the Life- boat Day. Other places in the South of | England where it has been most suc- j cessfully launched are Andover, Sid- mouth, Torquay, andWeymouth; and it is especially interesting to note that at Andover it led to a revival of Life-boat Day, which had not been held in 1920, and at Sidmouth to a special fete (re- ported in " News from the Branches ") in addition to the ordinary Effort, with the result that the Branch has more than doubled its remittance.

At Oxford, as at Eastbourne, the Guild has been most warmly received, and a great many members have been enrolled.

In the North of England the Guild was inaugurated at Manchester and Salford, at a meeting, on the 4th July, at which the Lady Mayoress presided.

Lady Sheffield, the President of the Ladies' Auxiliary, delivered an address " appealing very earnestly to all present to use their best efforts to secure new members of the Guild," and the following resolution was moved by the Lady Mayoress of Manchester, j seconded by the Mayoress of Sallord, i and unanimously carried : " That in ' harmony with the desires of H.R.H.

The Prince of Wales (President) and of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTI- j TUTION, this meeting hereby resolves that the Manchester, Salford and District Branch Ladies' Auxiliary be in future known as the Manchester, Salford and District Ladies' Life-boat Guild, and that those present, in heartily com- mending such Guild, further resolve to do all possible to secure new members of the Guild, in the confident and fervent hope that the women of this great district will continue to show their high appreciation of the truly national and humane work of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION." On the 17th August a special meeting was held at Blackpool, presided over by the Mayoress, and a similar resolution was passed to that at the Manchestermeeting, and on the llth October special meetings were held to inaugu- rate the Guild at Bradford and Hkley.

In Scotland it has been launched with special success at Wick in Caithness, where its members took a prominent ' part in making the arrangements for the launching ceremony of the New Wick Motor Life-boat, of which an account appears on another page of The Life-Boat.

Reports have been received that the Guild will be inaugurated during the autumn in a number of places where it was not found possible to take any steps immediately, and we feel sure that the facts given in this article will encourage the Branches in those and other places to adopt the Guild, and enroll their helpers as members of it without delay.

Enough has been done already to entitle us to hope that by next year not only will the Guild be established in the great majority of the places where there are Branches of the Insti- tution, but that it will have enlisted the help of many new workers, and led to the starting of Branches where at present none exist. All this will prove most helpful in 1924, when the Insti- tution celebrates the Centenary of its foundation..