A DINNER in celebration of the Institu- tion's Centenary was held at the Hotel Cecil, on 2nd July, 1924. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, K.G. (the Institution's President) presided, and those present numbered 478, among them being Life-boat workers and supporters from all over the country. A list of the principal guests is given after the report of the speeches. They included the Prime Minister, the Ambassadors of Spain, Japan and France, the Ministers for Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark, the representatives of the Life-boat Services of eight foreign countries, and the seven Gold Medallists.

The toast list was as follows :— " The King." H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, K.G., the President of the Institution.

" The Foreign Life-boat Societies, their Life-boatmen, and their Dele- gates." The Prime Minister.

Reply by His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador (Senor Don A. Merry Del Val).

"The Royal National Life-boat In- stitution and the Life-boatmen of Great Britain." The Right Hon. Winston Spencer Churchill, C.H.

Reply by Major H. E. Burton, R.E, Hon. Superintendent of the Motor Life-boat at Tynemouth.

"The President of the Institution." The Minister for the Netherlands (JonkheerR.de Marees van Swinderen).

Reply by the President.

The Prime Minister.

The PRIME MINISTER : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, my Lords, ladies and gentlemen, we have met to-night to celebrate the centenary of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION. I am not quite sure why I have been selected to speak to-night. At first I confess I thought that there might have been in the minds of those who were good enough to invite me some sort of idea of the political symbolism; I am so often " In distress." There is, for instance, on my right, an old friend of mine (Mr. Winston Churchill) whose function seems to be that of attempting to raise the sea against me, and it sometimes appears to me as though the best thing I could do would be to become a great expert in " getting off the rocks " and in " saving the crew." (Laughter.) But, Your Royal Highness, there is perhaps a more serious and a more real reason for my being invited to speak, and it is this : I was born and brought up on the shores of a firth which is frequently lashed into the wildest furies by north-easterly gales. I have seen again and again the gallant men of the Life-boats in action. In the churchyard where our people lie there are long lines of graves, where men lie from all parts of the earth, whose bodies have been washed up on that shore, and near by them are the bodies of Life-boatmen who, in the course of their glorious work, have lost their lives. The churchyard, the seashore, the rocks in the offing, all rise up in my mind to-night, and they are associated with the magnificent work of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LITE-BOAT INSTITUTION.

I never think of those seas without some memory of that extraordinarily romantic blue and white boat, with the red stripe on it, surrounded by men in oilskins and life-belts.

(Cheers.) I have seen them battling with and battled by the waves. I have seen them go out tossing and rolling, and bringing back men, and not only men, but women, whom they have rescued from a stricken ship. To-night in these circumstances, in this hall, my mind wanders back to those sandy shores, to those wild waves, and to those treacherous rocks just out in the offing.

The founder of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION said in 1823 that he proposed to found an institution which " contemplates the rescue of thousands of human beings now in existence and an incalculable number yet unborn from one of the most tremendous of all perils. It is a cause which extends from the palace to the cottage, in which politics and party cannot have any share, and which addresses itself with equal force to all the best feelings of every class in the State." Those are very fine words, and those words were a wonderful prophecy. Your Royal Highness knows how amply that prophecy has been fulfilled during the past century. It has always been a source of great satisfaction to me to feel that Great Britain pioneered the Life-boat movement; it would be a great disgrace to this country i) we had not done so. We are the leading maritime power of the world; our history is the history of ocean adventure; our position is in the seas and on the seas. The sea is in our blood. The waves belong to us, not in the narrow and small-minded sense, but in that mysterious spiritual way—those wild, restless, dashing waves, sometimes sleeping like a child, presently raving like a wild, untomeable beast, belong to us, in a sense. We share in their restlessness, and we belong to them in their adventure. Ill enough would it become us if we had not pioneered in this movement.

(Cheers.) During the last day or two the Life-boat Institution has been celebrating its Centenary ; has gathered together representatives of all the nations, with two or three exceptions, where similar institutions exist. We welcome here to-night the representatives of the United States of America, Japan, Prance, Spain, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

(Cheers.) We regret most sincerely that that old-fashioned and much experienced reason in these days, financial difficulties, has kept away Portugal and Germany; and I venture to hope that before long, as I understand these inter- national conferences are to be continued, other countries will both have established institutions such as this, and be able to send their representatives to London.

Your Royal Highness, I add most sincerely my appeal to the public to respond, with the generosity that the Institution deserves, to its appeals. (Loud cheers.) It is a great comfort to feel that when those storms come there are vigilant eyes, there are strong and skilled hands, and there are brave hearts watching for the storm-stressed mariner to aid him and to succour him in his need. Indeed, it is an epic, it is one of those great romances of humanity struggling with the wild elements of nature. I never think of those seas, I never think of the little bodies of fishermen standing in the sheltered corners of houses watching the waves, waiting for orders, without some- thing stirring in my heart that makes me feel akin to the elements of nature themselves.

And the men who man the Life-boats, the men who go out, the men who with alacrity launch them, as I have seen them, run into the sea after them, jump on board and out over the tossing waves —who are they ? Men who live in little, whitewashed, thatched cottages, who go to sea day by day with their lines and with their nets, earning by the sweat of their brow a small pittance in order to keep body and soul together, and to keep a watch over the sea.

Out at night, in with the dawning. Those men catch from the circumstances of their lives a strangely powerful personality and a wonder- fully fascinating character. How well I know them, and how much I love them 1 Those are the men who rescue.

I beg of you all to remember this, that whilst our sympathies go out to the broken, to the old, to the wretched, whilst we are willing to help to establish institutions of charity in order that their declining years may be passed in peace, how much more important it is that the strong men, men in the prime of their life, men still vigorous, in the midst of danger, should be rescued by the heroic efforts of the Life-boatmen! The sailor has to be rescued, the head of the family, the bread winner, the man to whom the wife and child look for assistance.

So that by rescuing those men we do not rescue only individuals, we rescue homes, and it is of infinite importance that every care should be taken that that should be done. (Cheers.) I am never quite certain that we imagine with sufficient accuracy the extraordinary work the mariner does in the life of the world.

There he is, going or coming, from land to land, across sea after sea, binding us all together, exchanging the products of the temperate climes for those of the tropical climes, helping us in a thousand and one ways to enjoy standards of life and comfort that never could be ours but for the dangers which he is willing to face. The obligations under which he puts us by his services can never be adequately recognized, and there is no better way of recognizing those services than by supporting this Institution. (Cheers.) There is one thing especially that I should like to refer to, and that is the international character of it all. It is a very providential arrangement that the men who face dangers, independent of language, independent of history, independent of race, are always drawn together by the common danger. The Life- boatman on shore never asks what flag the ship in distress is flying; it is enough for him that she is in distress; it is enough for him that his fellow-mariners are in jeopardy; he goes willingly to their rescue. I venture to hope ;hat as these Institutions increase in number, as these conferences become more common, .hey in their turn will contribute something substantial to that great international under- standing which all true men and women are doing their best to create at the present moment. (Cheers.) Your Royal Highness, I have the greatest pleasure in giving the toast of the "Foreign Life-boat Societies, their Life-boatmen, and ;heir delegates," and I couple that toast with the name of His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador. (Loud applause.) The Spanish Ambassador.

His EXCELLENCY THE SPANISH AMBASSADOR: Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, Mr. Prime Minister, my Lords, ladies and gentle- men, whether we row stroke, whether we row low, whether we are the cox standing in the stern sheets and bossing the whole show, or whether we are just one of a bunch tugging at an oar, we all have our work cut out; we all lave our part in the boat of life, and although it is not the same thing as a Life-boat, still in both cases the whole crew, every man jack of them, must pull his weight and something more, that is to say, he must do his level best.

Every one must row in time ; he must put the general interest before his own, and all must keep their weather eye on the coxswain, blow high, blow low, ready to carry out his behest in the snuffing of a candle. In other words, discipline must be observed, whatever occurs, otherwise sooner or later over the gunwale we go, and unless there is some friendly hand to give us board and lodging for three days and three nights, we sink " full fathom five," down into Davy Jones' bottomless locker, there to lie and drown. (Laughter and cheers.) I do not know whether it is this similarity between the adventure of every man on the surf of life and the fortunes of the Life-boat, or whether it is the compelling spectacle of human pluck and endurance in one of its highest and most splendid forms, that makes the saving of life at sea dear to every man and every woman too, who has his or her heart in the right place.

We have the greatest respect, sympathy and admiration for the Life-boat, for the Life- boat's crew, and for their parent, THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. All of us here to-night, I make bold to say, from His Royal Highness downwards (and the Prince has shown us time and again where his heart is) —(cheers)—are delighted to find ourselves here at the table of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION. I, for my part, deem it one of the greatest honours of my life to respond to the toast which has been so eloquently proposed by the Prime Minister. (Cheers.) When we stop and think that 1824 years of Christianity rolled over the world before an obscure Englishman, obscure no longer, and not a very successful one at that•, had the mind to visualize the idea, and the courage to carry it out—although perhaps it had been practised individually and spasmodically before ; when we remember that before that day ship- wrecked fishermen, sailors and passengers, were left to their own resources, that is to say, to chance, and that the ghoulish practices of the wrecker were almost a recognized trade, then must we marvel indeed that the establish- ment of Life-saving Apparatus and Life-boats, in some form or other, was not considered a paramount duty from the moment that the Cross was first planted on the shore of any land.

To his imperishable glory an Englishman it was, Hillary, who first saw this, one of the brightest, one of the most beautiful and one of the purest jewels in Britannia's crown; honour to the mother, honour to the son.

(Loud cheers.) But hardly had he given this lead than it was taken up the world over, so that to-day states and peoples vie in the establishment of Life-boat stations, in the launching of craft, in the recruiting and drilling of crews, and a thousand hands stretch forth not only to give without stint, but, better still, to grasp an oar ; and this we owe first and last to Sir William Hillary. (Cheers.) So loaded are our rolls of honour with names that there are enough to man the bright, white, shining fleet which certainly sails in heaven, for what can a man do more than lay down his life for his brother ? Here again Britain, the land of Grace Darling, leads the van, but not alone. From Spain and Britannia's iron-bound shores, from the fog-enshrouded cliffs and sand dunes and sand spits of the north, from where the Atlantic rollers crash on the coast year in and year out, from the surf-ridden shores of Africa, of South America, of Asia, of Oceania, they come at Hillary's call, an ever swelling host.

(Cheers.) I know a little port on the northern coast of Spain, nestling at the foot of an elm- covered hill, where lie a few English graves looking out towards the bay. There, as in Longfellow's smithy, year in and year out you can hear the clang of the riveter's hammer, the thud, of the caulker's mallet. There the boats, like greyhounds in a line, dance on every ripple of the waves. There the fishwives' wares are garnered from the sea at the price— how often—of men's lives and women's tears.

Above them, ensconced in the sea-wall, stands the bronze bust of a rude fisherman in his simple local seafaring dress, and underneath is this inscription: "To Father Mari," the man who spent his life saving the lives of others, until one day, when the Bay of Biscay took its revenge, there was one life he could not save, and that was his own. Again, as this scene fades before my eyes, I see in the distance the statue which Spain reared to one of her noblest sons, a negro, whose soul was whiter than the whitest, Victor Rojas, the man who saved two hundred lives.* (Cheers.) Ladies and gentlemen, I have mentioned these Spanish names because I am a Spaniard.

I am happy to see that my country appreciates, as it deserves to be appreciated, THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, by sending here two distinguished officers of our Royal Navy, a Navy, which I may say in passing, does much in Spain for the Life-boat Service.

Still, every country, whether represented here or not, could say the same, because in this work of rescuing life at sea all the world over we are but one. Thus is expressed in one of its highest and noblest forms the brotherhood of humanity by the brotherhood of the sea.

(Cheers.) I trust that this may be the means of restoring man again to his natural state, the state of peace, the peace of a contented world, the peace of action, and the gratitude of one people towards another, the peace and good- will of the heart. Even if we are disarmed something will always be left to fight; we shall always have to fight the elements, we shall always have to fight the sea. (Cheers.) The foreign Life-boat Societies are proud to see themselves here in England to-day. They recognize that Britain went before and gave the example ; she was the model; she was the first to tread the path when, on 4th March, 1824, in the London Tavern, the first Life-boat Society was modestly founded by Sir William Hillary. We recognize in THE ROYAL NATIONAL LITE-BOAT INSTITUTION not only the model, but also the helper, the adviser, * For an account of the life of Victor Rojas, see THE LIFEBOAT for June, 192 J.

which, by its help and advice, has saved man thousands of lives beyond the shores o Britain. We recognize in the Institution on of Britain's noblest glories, and we turn towards that Institution as the object of our greatest admiration, our deepest sympathy and our warmest affection. (Loud cheers.) Mr. Prime Minister, I thank you for the words you have so kindly addressed to the foreign Life-boat Societies. You may b certain that your friendly sentiments are reciprocated by one and all, with the same sincerity and the same kindness with which you spoke to us just now. (Applause.) Mr. Winston Churchill.

Mr. WINSTON CHURCHILL : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, my Lords, ladies and gentlemen, I have been entrusted with the duty of proposing the toast of " THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION and the Life-boatmen of Great Britain," but when '.

survey the situation at the present moment it seems to me that the Prime Minister has said almost all that could be said upon the subject and that his great and eloquent address has been reinforced by the marvellous exhibition of mastery of the English language (loud cheers) for which we are indebted to the Spanish Ambassador. There are, nevertheless, a few gleanings from this wide field. One looks back to Sir William Hillary. He was a soldier—like General Seely, who has the Gold Medal of the French Republic for saving life at sea. (Cheers.) Sir William Hillary was a soldier—like Major Burton, who responds to this toast. (Cheers.) He preached a gospel which is preached to-day; he practised a gospel which is practised to-day. All his life he was a Life-boatman. At the age of sixty he still went out in the Life-boat. Three hundred and five persons were saved in Life-boat efforts in which he took a personal part, and three times he received the Gold Medal of the Institution. (Cheers.) It is a remarkable fact that this great Institution has subsisted for 100 years without the slightest financial assistance from the State. (Cheers.) All the enthusiasm of my right honourable friend (the Prime Minister), all the vivid and intimate knowledge which he at this day possesses of the conditions of life, may be enlisted by me in further eulogy of the self-reliant spirit of this great Institution.

It has never taken a penny from public funds, this Institution whose brave volunteers earn their living in their own way, and only come out when they are called, whose funds are maintained entirely by subscriptions, and whose administration is conducted by Com- mittees and Honorary Secretaries who work :or nothing. Is it not a marvellous achieve- ment ? (Loud cheers.) When Sir William Hillary started the Life- boat Service a Life-boat cost £149, it now costs ilO.OOO. The Motor Life-boat, fitted with all the apparatus that is necessary, with all that modern science can bestow on the structure, costs £10,000, and the slipway and the shed ind appliances which are required for running her, I am credibly informed, are matters of almost equal expense. Whereas the Life-boat Institution started with thirty-nine boats, ill equipped, ill organized, it now has 230— including forty-four of these great and costly Motor Life-boats—which have been over- whelmingly proved to be the most effective means of saving life. It is certainly one of the glories of our nation that we have been able to achieve the whole of this immense development, and that there are to-day 4,000 trained Life-boatmen standing ready round the coasts of this Island to go at any moment on their errand of duty—simply by the exercise of voluntary efforts and goodwill. That is a great achievement. The Prime Minister has pointed out that as the leading maritime power, as an island people, this was a matter in which we should have taken the lead, and I join myself with him in a tribute to the spontanity and the gallantry with which this idea, of which we are entitled to claim the authorship, has been sustained and responded to and developed by the great seaboard nations of the world. (Cheers.) The achievements of the Institution have been remarkable. In 100 years 60,000 lives iave been saved from the seas. (Cheers.) I am told (though I have not made the calcula- tion, but I am assured on credible authority) that that works out at eleven lives a-week.

In the War 5,300 people were saved by the British Life-boats. Friend or foe were brought x shore and relieved, and delivered from danger. No call has been unanswered, and no service has been unnoticed by the Life-boat Institution; rewards and recognition have ighted upon those who have done worthy and courageous service, but a great distinction has seen observed. The highest reward of the institution has only been given in 95 cases during the whole century—only 87 persona lave received the Gold Medal. Of those 87 jersons, only eight are alive, and of those eight, even have accepted the invitation to our banquet to-night, and of those seven, one, Major Burton, is to reply to the toast I have he honour to propose. He earned his Gold Medal in the rescue of a third—for the rest perished—of the survivors of the hospital ship Rohilla, which in October, 1914, was cast away.

He voyaged in his Life-boat through the storm or fifty miles before he could reach the wreck, he pushed out again when he reached the port which was in the neighbourhood; for hours and hours they were at sea, and again and again they were nearly capsized by the nonnous waves which broke over the wreck and broke over the Life-boat. Fifty survivors were brought safely to shore by him and his Coxswain, Robert Smith, and Major Burton is ttingly chosen to reply to the toast of the life-boatmen. (Cheers.) We live in a valiant age, an age which, though peculiarly a nervous age, nevertheless as proved capacities of daring, of self-abne- ation, self-sacrifice, dauntless defiance to the rute powers of nature and of death, which no ormer age has excelled, which we may perhaps easonably contend no former age has equalled; but there is something about the work of saving fe which raises it, in certain aspects, above lal form of peril and x ii-sacrifice which is ion bined wnh taking life. It is a great problem to balance the self-sacrifice of the soldier and the self-sacrifice of the Life-boat- man. Mill, one feels that the Life-boatman may plead that he represents the cause of humanity, and not that of any single nation or any single cause which may in the march of events from time to time arrive. (Cheers.) " Man the Life-boat!"—it is an inspiring call. It may, as the Spanish Ambassador has suggested to us, have other applications in daily life. When a friend is in trouble or in sickness " Man the Life-boat!" If a class is submerged, ill-treated or exploited, " Man the Life-boat 1" If a small nation is fighting for its life, " Man the Life-boat!" All these are applications of the same idea, but the finest of all is the simple actual sphere by the sea- shore. There is the glorious sphere of heroism and chivalry in human nature. The wreck lies on the reef, great waves are breaking over it, the timbers are going to pieces, the plates are buckling every hour, the crew and the passengers, women and children, are lashed to the rigging, clinging on to any coign of vantage which gives them shelter, or huddled in some structure which has survived the fury of the elements. There they are, out in the night, in the sea, in the tempest. They have no hope in this world except the Life-boat, but their signals have not been unperceived.

The order has gone forth " Man the Life-boat!" —an order which is never disobeyed. Great waves may thunder on the shore, winds may drive and beat with their utmost fury, the boat goes out, thrusts its way ahead to the wreck, it is twisted and turned by the con- vulsions of the sea, it is swamped with water, it is driven back, again and again it returns, it pursues and perseveres on its mission of rescue, of salvation, to those who are in peril, it drives on with a courage which is stronger than the storm, it drives on with a mercy which does not quail in the presence of death, it drives on as a proof, a symbol, a testimony, that man is created in the image of Qod, and that valour and virtue have not perished in the British race. (Loud cheers.) Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, my Lords, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the toast of "THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION and the Life-boatmen of Great Britain." (Loud applause.) Major H. E. Burton.

Major H. E. BURTON : Your Royal High- ness, Your Excellencies, the Right Hon. the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Mr. Winston Churchill, my Lords, ladies and gentlemen, I feel it a very great honour indeed to have been asked to respond to the toast of " THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION and the Life-boatmen of Great Britain," which has been proposed with such eloquence by Mr. Winston Churchill, and I feel my inadequacy for the task. It is not only his speech and the other eloquent speeches to which we have listened which make me feel this. It is rather the thought of those for whom I speak. There are seven of us here to-night whose honour it is to wear the Gold Medal of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, and we had the honour of being received by His Majesty on Monday — Captain Thomas McCombie, of Kingstown, Coxswain Robert Smith, of Tynemouth, Coxswain Henry Blogg, of Cromer, Coxswain John Howells, of Fish- guard, Coxswain William Fleming, of Gorles- ton, and Coxswain John Swan, of Lowestoft.

(Cheers.) England, Wales and Ireland are all represented, and I am proud to think that five of the seven of us here to-night come from the East Coast. It was on the East Coast, at the mouth of the Tyne, that the first Life-boat was built and the first Life-boat Station established, and the East Coast has a record second to none round all the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. But it is not only for the seven that I speak. There are the members of our own Crews who shared the dangers with us, and should share the honours also. I wish that it had been possible for them all to have been here to-night. (Cheers.) Then there are nearly 6,000 more round the 5,000 miles of coast of these islands, trained and tried Life- boatmen. I know what a great organization the service is. I remember how it is main- tained by the help of thousands who volunteer to work for it in raising its funds, and of tens of thousands who subscribe to it. All these are included in this toast of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION. But surely the rock on which the Service is built is these men who man its boats! Without them no generosity of workers or of subscribers would be of any use, and it is in their names that I feel I am speaking, for the 4,000 Life-boatmen and the 4,000 more, many of them women, who launch the boats. It is in their names that I thank Mr. Churchill for the tribute which he has paid them ; a splendid tribute— but it is deserved. (Cheers.) No one who has not been afloat with them knows what great seamen and what great-hearted men the Crews of the Life-boats are. (Loud cheers.) And how shall I thank you for this tribute which you have paid them to-night ? I think that all they would wish me to say is this: " We have manned your Life-boats for a hundred years. Go on giving us the boats, the best you can—as always—and we will carry on." (Loud applause.) The Minister for the Netherlands.

THE MINISTER FOR THE NETHERLANDS : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, Mr.

Prime Minister, my Lords, ladies and gentle- men, the privilege of this toast has been placed in my hands as a recognition of the fact that my country was the first one to follow Britain's guide in establishing and organizing a Life-boat Service. A hundred years since have passed.

Age is very often only of very problematical value, but when one sees your society and our society in the full strength of their youth, with an undiminished enterprising and organiz- ing capacity, ripened only by the vast experience which they have had, then I daresay it is a subject of pride for the Dutch people, who have always been so intimately associated with the sea, that they borrowed so closely from their powerful neighbour—with whom they have been competitors so often in the glorious days of the past—in establishing the humane and self-sacrificing principles of a Life-boat Service on their coasts. I trust that my colleagues, the representatives around this hospitable board of the other seafaring nations, will feel no jealousy because I have been in- vited to be the broadcaster of our collective ad- miration for this Institution, and to present again our wishes for the prosperity of its work, and the continuance of its work as the pioneer in this service of humanity. (Cheers.) I trust that you will admit that if there is anywhere a place where Holland's voice may be heard in the concert of nations, it may be on an occasion like this, where we are celebrating the heroic efforts of men to wrest from the sea what she so often already has claimed as a victim of hers. (Cheers.) In this respect I would like to remind you of what in my youth was a common theory, which we heard in the Sunday Schools, taken from a chapter of Genesis: " God has created the earth with the exception of Holland, which had to create herself." (Loud laughter.) Century after century the Dutch people have been, and year after year they still are, indefatigable in their battle against the sea.

They have pushed the waters back until— excuse this expression for alliteration's sake— " Holland is dyked and dammed all round." (Laughter and cheers.) We have had many glorious pages in common in our history, pages by which we can show how we were fighting, very often side by side, very often also against each other, and though I will not say that every Dutch boy is enthusiastic about the hours he has to spend at school to learn details of the admirals' names in English wars, still it is for all of us the most glorious chapter of our history. (Laughter and cheers.) We are always taught that we have to be as proud of the battles which we lost as of the battles which we won, and we had men in those days a few of the most gallant we could have met. Allow me to remind you of a story which is nowadays told in Holland, and I cannot resist the temptation to mention it here, because after all it gives the greatest credit to the British race. A young Dutchman found himself with an Englishman, and he was boasting of those glorious deeds of his forefathers. He said "Remember how De Reuter came up the Medway to Chatham," and, with his delightful calmness and laconic spirit, of which you all possess the secret in a very high degree, the Englishman only answered "Try it again!" (Cheers and laughter.) Certainly there is no danger that we will ever follow up his very sound advice. But what we have followed, and we were proud to do so, was the hint which we got from the glorious founder of this Society, Sir William Hillary; and, only six months after your Institution was established, we established in Holland a similar society to this. Therefore it gives me very lively satis- faction to see amongst the honoured guests here the representatives of the two Dutch Societies, founded in 1824, which now, in the fullest and most complete co-operation, provide the Life-boat Service along our dangerous coasts. The cordial welcome with which you have greeted us, and the sumptuous banquet which you have offered us to-night are very highly appreciated. (Cheers.) I now have very great pleasure in proposing the toast of " His Royal Highness," both in his capacity as our host and as your President.

We are living in these days in an atmosphere of competition in every possible field of human activity. We read about competitions : Who is the prettiest woman ? Who is the fattest baby ? Who is the most popular poet 1 Or the most advanced author ? (Laughter.) And I think that if moved by that same spirit we could submit at this moment to the world in its entirety this simple question : " Who is the happiest man now living ? " I think that the overwhelming majority would answer "The Prince of Wales." (Loud cheers.) You, Sir, though young in years, have seen more aspects of the activities of life, both in war and in peace, than has come to the lot of any of your contemporaries. In your knightly acceptance of your duties as sailor and soldier, and your splendid participation in every kind and form of sport, in your sympathy with the cause of charity and your activity in furthering the welfare of ex-Service men, and of the industrial masses, you have shown yourself a Prince among your people. (Cheers.) By your presence to-night you have given again a fresh proof of the keen and personal interest that you take in the great work of this great Institution, a work which I venture to suppose appeals to you more than any other, because it shows your people in their noblest aspects.

We find here courage at its highest and self- sacrifice of the most generous and unselfish kind, at the call of every seafarer, no matter to what nation he belongs; a body of thousands of fisherfolk carrying on day by day along the coasts of your island their glorious work, and representing in themselves the very type of Britain's best men. With your inspiration and your leadership, Your Royal Highness cannot fail to prosper in a country like England. (Loud cheers.) I have now the honour to propose the toast of the health, long life and happiness of His Royal Highness, and I venture to suggest to you that it should be concentrated in the words of that beautiful song, which I think is second only to your National Anthem, " God bless the Prince of Wales." (Loud applause.) The Prince of Wales.

H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES : Your Excellencies, my Lords, ladies and gentlemen, I am very grateful indeed for the kind way in which my health has been proposed to-night, and for the very cordial way in which you have drunk it. I am very proud indeed to be in the chair this evening, and as Chairman I have to say that I am grateful to all those eminent speakers who have come here to-night to support me, although, when it falls to the lot of a man to have to make the last speech, he is not always very pleased, for very often the words have been taken out of his mouth. I must say that I am very privileged to preside on this memorable occasion, particularly because the last dinner held was in the year 1899, when King Edward, then Prince of Wales, was in the chair.

THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITU- TION is celebrating its Centenary Dinner, and I think it is impossible for any one who knows the instincts and the ideals of our race, not to be impressed with the importance of the service rendered by this Institution, the service that it is rendering, and, I venture to say, will continue to render, not only to British sea- farers, but to the seafarers of the whole world. (Cheers.) The Institution has held a Centenary Con- ference, which has been sitting for the last two days, in the course of which representatives of no less than nine nations have been taking part. We welcome those foreign representa- tives most cordially. They have been discuss- ing how best to further the interests of saving life at sea, and Count Yoshii, the Japanese representative, made the splendid proposal that all maritime countries should establish and organize a Life-boat Service. I think, in fact I am sure, that by this Centenary Con- ference the Life-boat Institution will prove to be once more the indirect means of providing for the safety of thousands of people now living and of an incalculable number yet unborn all the world over. (Cheers.) Ladies and gentlemen, the King has been pleased to mark his appreciation of the import- ance of the service rendered, not only to Britain but to the whole world, by THE ROYAL NATIONAL LITE-BOAT INSTITUTION, by con- ferring on its Gold Medallists, seven of whom are here this evening—and I am going to ask those gentlemen to stand up—(the seven Gold Medallists then stood up and were received with long and loud applause) the King has conferred on these splendid men the honour of the British Empire Medal for conspicuous personal gallantry. (Loud cheers.) Unfortu- nately, one of them, Father O'Shea, from Ireland, has been prevented by illness from being with us this evening, but we are very proud, and I particularly as Chairman, am very proud, to honour these men to-night.

(Cheers.) They are men who have done very big things, and one cannot help wondering what they must think of all our speeches to-night and of all our conferences. Our excuse is that we are doing it on behalf of the Life-boat Service, on behalf of these men and of their mates, and as President 1 should like to assure you how very keenly I appreciate the services of all the Coxswains and the Crews of the Life-boats, and, I must add, of the thousands of men and women who make their work possible by presenting the claims of this Institution throughout the country, through- out the Empire, and throughout the world.

(Cheers.) We are not, as an Institution, out to make money to-night at this banquet, and perhaps the Committee of Management were wise in deciding not to do so, because it might have frightened away some timid people who would have lost the opportunity and the pleasure of greeting these Gold Medallists, and of welcoming our foreign delegates on this most auspicious occasion in London ; but I trust that it is not out of place for me, as President of the Institu- tion, at the Centenary Dinner, to make a most earnest appeal to the British people to support this Service in a generous and whole-hearted way. (Loud chefers.) We must not forget that the Life-boat Service is always mobilized ; it is mobilized in peace time just as it was during the War, mobilized for the great struggle with the sea for the lives of those in peril. Another thing that we must remember, and I am rather repeating what Mr. Churchill said to-night, is that this Institution is not helped at all by the State. It is a Service of which we of this great nation may well be proud, and it is a Service which belongs to the nation in a very intimate way. It is the Life-boat Service, provided by this great Institution, which we are honouring to-night, and the centenary of which we are celebrating, and I desire to commend it to everybody.

(Loud applause.) Among those present at the Dinner were:— H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, K.G.; the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. J.

Ramsay MacDonald, M.P.); His Excel- lency the Spanish Ambassador (Sefior Don A. Merry del Val); His Excellency the Japanese Ambassador (Baron G. Hayashi); His Excellency the French Ambassador (Comte de Saint-Aulaire); the Minister for Norway (Mr. M. B. Vogt); the Minister for the Netherlands (Johnkeer Dr. R. de Marees van Swin- deren); the Minister for Sweden (Baron E. K. Palmstierna); the Danish Minister (Count Preben Ahlefeldt Laurvig); the Rt. Hon. F. 0. Roberts, M.P. (Minister of Pensions); Mr. A. V. Alexander, M.P. (Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade); the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill, C.H.; the Worshipful the Mayor of Westminster (Councillor E. Home); Capitaine de Vaisseau de Ruffi de Ponteves (Naval Attache to the French Embassy); Captain C. L. Hussey (Naval Attache to the United States Embassy); Commander Prestrud (Naval Attache to the Norwegian Lega- tion) ; Commander de Bahr (Naval Attache to the Swedish Legation); Commander Evers (Naval Attache to the Danish Legation): the representatives of the foreign Life-boat societies, whose names have already been given: the seven Gold Medallists, whose names have already been given: the following members of the Committee of Manage ment: Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt. (Chair- man) ; the Hon. George Colville (Deputy Chairman); the Earl of Albemarle ; the Earl of Hardwicke ; Major-General the Rt. Hon. J. E. Bernard Seely, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., M.P.; Captain the Vis- count Curzon, C.B.E., R.N.V.R., M.P.; Colonel Lord William Cecil, C.V.O.; Sir William Corry, Bt.; Rear-Admiral Frederick C. Learmonth, C.B., C.B.E. (the Hydrographer of the Admiralty); Vice- Admiral Sir H. H. D. Tothill, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O. (the Admiral Com- manding Reserves); Sir Herbert Acton Blake, K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O. (the Deputy Master of Trinity House); Engineer Rear-Admiral Charles Rudd ; Brigadier- General Noel M. Lake, C.B.; Commander Sir Harry Mainwaring, Bt., R.N.V.R.; Major Sir Maurice Cameron, K.C.M.G.; Sir John G. Gumming, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.; Mr. H. Hargood, O.B.E., J.P., D.L.; Captain S. M. Day, C.B., D.S.O., R.N.R.; Captain G. C. Holloway, O.B.E., R.D., R.N.R.; Captain J. P.

Cave ; Mr. Henry Cavendish-Bentinck; Mr. John F. Lamb ; Mr. H. D. Clayton ; Mr. Herbert F. Lancashire ; Mr. Henry R. Fargus ; Mr. J. J. Crosfield ; Mr. J. Seville Fortescue ; Mr. B. A. Glanvill. Lady Baring ; Lady Cynthia Colville ; Miss Ishbel Macdonald ; Lady Florence Pery; the Marquess of Tweeddale, C.B.E., and the Marchioness of Tweed- dale ; the Earl of Plymouth; the Earl of Yarborough; the Earl of Normanton ; the Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Pella; Lord and Lady Brownlow; Vice- Admiral Sir H. F. Oliver, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.B., M.V.O. (Second Sea Lord), and Dame Beryl Oliver, D.B.E.; General Sir Reginald Wingate, G.C.B., G.C.V.O., G.B.E., K.C.M.G., D.S.O.; Vice - Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey, G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G., K.C.I.E., C.B.; Major - General Sir Andrew Russell, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., and Lady Russell; Sir Charles Wakefield, Bt.; Sir Sven Hansen, Bt. Sir Alan Garrett Anderson K.C.B. (Chairman of the Chamber of Shipping); Sir Hardman Lever, K.C.B., and Lady Lever ; Colonel Sir Wyndham Murray, K.C.B.; Lieut.-Colonel Sir R. D. Waterhouse, K.C.B., C.M.G.; Sir H. E. Bruce-Porter, K.B.E., C.M.G., and Lady Bruce-Porter ; Sir Alfred and Lady Rice-Oxley; Sir Herman Gollancz; Mr. Charles Hipwood, C.B. (Marine Department of the Board of Trade); Lady Blake ; Lady Cameron ; the Rev.

A. W. Gough (Prebendary of St. Paul's); the Hon. Mrs. Seely; Mr. S. R. Preston- Hillary ; Mrs. Fargus; Mrs. Lamb; Mrs. Day; Mrs. Glanvill; Mrs. Crosfield; Miss Alice Marshall (Hon. Secretary of the Oxford and District Branch); and the following officials of the Institu- tion : Mr. George F. Shee, M.A. (Secre- tary) ; Captain Howard F. J. Rowley, C.B.E., R.N. (Chief Inspector of Life- boats); Mr. J. R. Barnett, O.B.E., M.I.N.A. (Consulting Naval Architect) ; Commander Thomas Holmes, R.N.

(late Chief Inspector of Life-boats); Mr. P. W. Gidney and Mr. Charles Vince (Assistant Secretaries).