By GEORGE F. SHEE, M.A., Secretary of the Institution.

THE Centenary celebrations began with the meeting, in the Guildhall, described on another page, on the Institution's hundredth birthday—4th March. They are being continued throughout the year all over the country, and when the year ends we shall be able to look back on a series of events which will have shown more notably than any event of the past how secure is the Life-boat Service in the affection of the whole British people, and the active and generous interest of thousands of voluntary workers.

' One can go further, and say how secure, in spite of the enormous changes of recent years and the growth of the idea of State control, remains the voluntary principle as the basis of the Service. Mr. Austen Chamberlain made the point with great vigour and truth when he said at the Centenary Meeting : " If we were sitting down, Lord Chelms- ford, or the Prime Minister, and I, and Sir Donald MacLean—if we four were sitting down with a clean slate to devise a constitution for a new country, and to define the sphere of its Governmental activities, I suppose there is no subject which we should more readily agree was more suited to State action, rather than to individual enterprise, than the organi- ;ation of a Life-boat Service round the coasts of our country. And yet here we are all celebrating the Centenary of a Voluntary Institution which has owed nothing but good will to any Govern- ment that has existed during the whole hundred years of its life, and which has organized this service, developed it, carried it on so efficiently, with such energy, with such adaptation to the march of science and the progress of invention, that not even Lord Chelms- ford would wish to convert it into a Government service, or would not hail this great Institution as the best means by which the Life-boat Service could be continued in the future as it was originated, and as it has been carried on in the past." And we are fortunate in having had definite statements in the House of Commons, showing that even a Govern- ment which believes in a wide exten- sion of State control is satisfied that the Life-boats, great national service though they are, are best left to be voluntarily manned and maintained.

In replying to a question in the House of Commons, asking if the Government would consider making a grant from public funds to render unnecessary the raising of money for the service by continuous appeals, Mr. Alexander, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, said: " From the practical point of view it would be unwise to consider making a far-reaching change of this kind, which would impose a heavy additional charge on public funds, unless a very strong case were made out for it." And again, when dealing with the service to the ketch Lord Hamilton, of which a full account is given elsewhere, Mr.

Alexander took the opportunity to say : " As far as the Board of Trade and the Government are concerned, we have every desire to support the magnificent voluntary work which has been under- taken by the National Life-boat Institu- tion." The celebrations, begun in London on 4th March, will be continued in July, when we shall hold an International Life-boat Conference in London. To this Conference we shall welcome, as guests of the Institution, delegates from the French, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian Life-boat Socie- ties, and from the United States Coast Guard and the Danish Ministry of Marine, the Life-boat Services in the two last countries being maintained by the State.

The Conference will discuss practically every question of technical interest, from the construction of Life-boats and Life-boat engines to the latest mechani- cal devices, such as Tractors and Line- throwing guns. At the same time there will be held on the Thames what has never been held before—an international pageant of Life-boats. The French Society is sending over its Twin-screw Motor Life-boat from Calais ; the North and South Holland Life-saving Society its latest type of Motor Life-boat, Bran- daris : the South Holland Life-saving Society its Steam Life-boat, Prins der Nederlanden, from the Hook, a Life-boat which has saved many British lives.

Norway is sending one of its cruising Life-saving Ketches, Denmark a Motor Life-boat, and Sweden a large cruis- ing Life-boat with auxiliary motor.

These boats will lie off the Temple Steps on the Victoria Embankment, near the training-ship President. They will go up the river, and be received in state by the Mayor of Fulham, and they will be open to the inspection of the public, so that London will be given a unique opportunity of comparing the different methods of life-saving in European countries.

The Government is entertaining the foreign delegates to a State banquet, and the Institution will hold its Cen- tenary Dinner on 2nd July. The Prince of Wales will preside, and the Prime Minister, the Spanish Ambassador, and Mr. Winston Churchill will be among the speakers. All the Institution's Gold Medallists have been invited to London as its guests, to attend the dinner, and during their visit they will be received by the King.

It has been a fortunate chance for the Institution that the British Empire Ex- hibition should have coincided with our Centenary. That has given us a great opportunity, and at Life-boat House, Wembley, the Institution has a more inter- esting and more complete display, showing the development and work of the Service, than has ever been given before—from a model of the first Life-boat, built on the Tyne in 1789, to a real Motor Life-boat of the latest type. This Life-boat, one of the Watson Cabin class, is our central exhibit, and is open to the public, so that many thousands, not only of British people, but of those from the Dominions and foreign countries, will have an oppor- tunity of seeing what a wonderful inven- tion is a modern Life-boat. They will have an opportunity of seeing also wort- ing models showing how Life-boats are launched, and how rescues are carried out, and a model of one of the most famous services in our history—the ser- vice to the Hospital Ship Rohilla in 1914.

From Life-boat House, Wembley, we hope that thousands will carry back to their homes in Great Britain and across the seas a clearer understanding of what our Life-boat Service is, of its history, of its place in our national life, and of its title to their help.

Of the many celebrations which have been or are being held by the Institu- tion's Branches I will say nothing here, because it is intended to publish with the next number of the Journal an illus- trated supplement, giving an account of what the Branches have done to make this the most notable year in the history of the Institution.

On another page is reproduced in facsimile the Prince of Wales's Cen- tenary Appeal not to Great Britain only, but to the whole Empire, and to all who value the Service as a great example of beroism and humanity, to give it their jenerous support. That appeal com- pletes the efforts of our Centenary Year, to extend by obtaining many new subscribers and helpers that broad foundation of popular support on which the Life-boat Service rests..