By EDGAR H. JOHNSON, F.C.I.S., District Organizing Secretary for the North of England.I HAVE recently addressed on behalf of tie Life-boat Service three very different audiences—the business men of Manchester at a luncheon of the Rotary Club, the ex-Service men and others at the " Toe H" centre at Salford, and the men in Strangeways Prison in Manchester.

It has been an unusual and very encouraging experience, and the interest and enthusiasm with which the story of the Life-boats was received by three such different audiences is, I think, as striking an example as one could have of the breadth of its appeal.

The Rotary Club is an organization which had its inception in America. It is a non-political, non-sectarian association of leading business men (embracing representatives of every trade and profession, bufc admitting to membership only one representative of each in each town), and its objects are the encouragement of high ethical standards in common life, the promotion of social intercourse and fellowship among business men, and the quickening of individual interests in everything affecting the public welfare. There are over 16,000 clubs and 100,000 members in this country, and the motto is " Service above Self." When I was asked to address the members of the Manchester Rotary Club, I regarded it as a high privilege, because it afforded an opportunity of bringing before sentative body Institution.

The Manchester Rotary Club has some 160 members, and it meets every Thursday for luncheon. On the present occasion some 120 members were an extremely reprethe claims of the present, and I was very much struck with the fact that among those attending were representatives of the legal and medical professions, and practically every variety of occupation which goes to make up Manchester life.

The address was to take just twenty five minutes, and within that limited time I endeavoured to trace the history of the Life-boat Service, with special reference) to the value of Motor Life-boats, to the great humanitarian side of the Institution's work, and to the fact that the Manchester and Salford Branch occupied the exceedingly proud position in the Centenary Year of being the largest contributing Branch to the Institution, not even excepting the City of London. I took great pride in pointing out that the administration expenses of the Institution were under 5 per cent., and that the expenses of the local Branch were-negligible. These facts so appealed to the warm-hearted business men of the Manchester Rotary Club that I was not only accorded a very hearty vote of thanks, but was assured that many individual contributions would be sent us, and that a proportion of the weekly collections taken at the Club would be allocated to the Institution.

Perhaps the special plea on this occasion was not so much that the Club should give financial help, but that the members should live up to their motto, " Service, above Self," and act as missionaries in the cause of the Life-boat, spreading among others the information and the appeal which had been put before them.

"Toe H." WHEN I had a request to address the members of " Toe H " at Salford, on 3rd February last, I was particularly struck with the homely and friendly invitation which read :— " We should be glad to welcome you on Tuesday next at 7.30 p.m., and perhaps you would talk about half an hour, and then prepare yourself for a ' volley of questions.' " If there be anything which our j Officials appreciate, beyond all words, it is " a volley of questions," because it shows at once the keenest interest and a desire to become acquainted with the I intimate details of a great Life-saving Cause. Moreover, our President, H.R.H.

the Prince of Wales, is the patron of " Toe H " and, indeed, I believe, was very largely responsible for its formation.

Arriving at the Salford centre I found it an old house of most admirabledimensions, and one most suitable for the accommodation of. the members of " Toe H." I was conducted through the premises—the excellent dining- room, the bedrooms (each containing a tablet in memory of those who had made the Great Sacrifice), and then the little library. Eventually I arrived in the " lounge" room, there to be most cordially welcomed by the " Acting Padre " and by an enthusiastic body of members, most of whom had taken an active part in the Great War.

It was not an address in the least degree, but a half-hour's friendly chat with men who had been " through things," with men who had a full knowledge of valour, of courage, and of devotion, and it was indeed gratifying to find in the small assemblage that England, Scotland, Walea and Ireland were all represented. Then came the " volley of questions," and it was " some volley " ; not unfriendly, but pertinent, and eventually I had the satisfaction of receiving a very cordial, and, I believe, sincere vote of thanks, added to a hearty promise of help in our work with the important Manchester and Salford Branch.

Perhaps one of the many reasons which actuated me in attending " Toe H" was the fact that the organization is founded on " Service," and it may not be amiss to record the short ceremony of the installation.

The Chairman, the " Acting Padre," holding the lamp says: " Who goes there ? " and the reply from the spon- sors of the candidate is, " A friend and brother to be ! " The Chairman handing the lamp to the candidate asks, " What is this ? " and the candidate replies, " The Lamp of Maintenance." The Chairman inquires, " What first lit it ? " and the immediate response is, " Un- selfish Sacrifice," Then the Chairman inquires, " What alone will maintain it ? " and the response is, " Unselfish Service." The Chairman further asks, " What is Service ? " and the candidate answers, " The rent we pay for our room on earth." Such is the simple ceremony of the initiation of the candidate to " Toe H," aad all that remains to be done is for the Chairman to address the members by saying, " The candidate stands before you, duly sponsored, and has well answered our questions ; do you pass him t " the immediate response being, " Pass friend, all's well! " If there be any Institution receiving "Unselfish Sacrifice" and "Unselfish Service," surely the Royal National Life-boat Institution, for a hundred years, has had them both; and the fact that, arising out of the Great War, there has come into existence another body, " Toe H," whose aim is of the same high standard as the Life-boat- men's, gives us all the more confident hope that our country will pass trium- phantly through all its difficulties.

A Prison Interlude.* When the Chairman of the Institu- tion, from his ripe experience as one of His Majesty's Commissioners, suggested I should give an address to the inmates of Strangeways Prison, Manchester, I was by no means enthusiastic but, remembering that our cause has existed through storms and stress, and that, apart altogether from " casting our bread upon the waters," I might give instruction, and pleasure to our more unfortunate brethren, I approached the Governor, Major the Hon. N. E. Fitz- Clarence, who heartily welcomed the proposal.

Mentioning the matter to the great firm, of " Forsyths of Manchester," the concert agents, etc., I was at once assured of their co-operation in the pro- vision of artistes, and, hence, our little " party " left the North of England Dis- trict Offices at six o'clock for " Strange- ways "—a singularly appropriate name under the circumstances. We realised we were " in" immediately our car entered and we heard the clanging of the great gates and the rattle of keys ; and our youngest member (the elocu- tionist) fervently expressed the hope that " The Warriors of the Sea " were with her as a bodyguard.

Through the courtyard and great * In the last issue of The Lifeboat appeared an account of a, lecture on the Life-boat Ser- vice which Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, gave to the men in Camp Hill Prison in the Isle of Wight, and of a gift received from them through the Governor.

entrance hall into the chapel, where some hundred and twenty greeted us right heartily. A brief introduction by the Governor, and then a pianoforte solo by Mrs. Adamson opened the " Inter- lude." Mr. Harold Browne gave a fine rendering of " Shipmates o' Mine," •which brought the house down, and his encore, " As you pass by," was perhaps prophetic. Then that great old sea poe'm by Clement Scott, " The Warriors oi the Sea," given by Miss Dorothy Johnson, was accorded a splendid reception, and Miss Marjorie Farnham delighted all present with " My Ships " and " Down in the Forest." Perhaps with unconscious humour, certainly with great effect, and considerable hilarity on the part of the listeners, Miss Farnham gave as an encore " If no one ever marries me." My own short address, dealing with the inception of THE ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, its revered founder, Sir William Hillary, the great advance which had been made in life- saving by the provision of Motor Life- boats, the fact that over 60,000 lives had been saved, and my appeal that, under happier circumstances, those present would help in the provision of much needed funds, had a most atten- tive hearing, very cordial thanks being tendered by the Governor, who ex- pressed the hope that we would come again.

" A- little help is worth much pity," and it may be that our " Interlude " at Strangeways will have its influence on those who heard it and were moved by the story of the splendid deeds of our Life-boat Crews.