A CONFERENCE of Honorary Secretaries and other Life-boat workers in th South-Eastern District — Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey anc Sussex—was held at Margate on 30th April and 1st May. It is hoped thai similar Conferences will be held in the other districts, and that they will become a regular feature of the Institu- tion's work. They should be of great value by enabling honorary workers to exchange ideas with one another and with the Institution's officials, and by increasing among them the feeling that they belong to a corporate body working for a great Cause. Where it is possible to hold the Conferences at Station Branches, they will also give the workers from inland Branches an opportunity of seeing the organization of the actual work of life-saving.

A Civic Welcome.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, presided at Margate, supported by Mr. George F.

Shee, M.A., Secretary of the Institution.

The arrangements were made by the District Organizing Secretary, with the cordial help of Colonel Skey, J.P., Chair- man of the Margate Branch, Mr. T. W.

Gomm, its Honorary Secretary, and other members of the Margate Committee. The Mayor (Councillor T. D. Wood, J.P.), the Vicar of Margate (the Rev. Andrew B. Eitchie, M.A.), and other prominent citizens took a personal part in the Conference, and gave the Institution's delegates a very hearty welcome, the Town Council voting a special sum for their entertainment.

Nearly forty Life-boat workers from different Branches were present, and the Committee would like to put on record their appreciation of the fact that these busy people not only spared the time to attend the two days' meeting, but did so at their own expense.

It is impossible also not to record with grateful recognition the admirable arrangements made for the comfort of the delegates by Mr. K. Cleveland and Mr. G. Cleveland, the proprietors of the St. George's Hotel, who have long been generous supporters of the Branch, and keenly alive to the work of the Institu- tion generally. They and their wives also contributed notably to the pleasure of the Conference by their musical talents, both on the Friday evening, when the delegates arrived, and at the Sunday Concert.

Annual Subscribers and Life-boat Days.

In opening the Conference, Sir God- frey Baring spoke on the policy and aims of the Institution. He dealt in particular with two points in the work of raising its funds. He emphasized the importance of getting as large a number as possible of regular annual subscribers, who were the backbone of the Institu- tion's finance, and he pointed out that in spite of the unpopularity of street collections—due to the fact that far too many were allowed—he had always been a supporter of this method of raising money, not only because Life-boat Days iontributed a very large part of the Institution's revenue, but because through them tens of thousands of people contributed who would not other- wise have any opportunity of doing so.

They were the surest means of approach- ng men and women of all classes on behalf of a work which must appeal to ivery class. He gave an example from lis own experience to show how the Life-boat Cause, presented in this way, appealed to the working man. On one Life-boat Day he stood outside a big losiery works, where a collector was stationed, counted 100 workers as they iame out, and saw eighty-two of them contribute.

Sir Godfrey urged upon Honorary Secretaries the importance of empha- sizing at all times—at Branch meetings and in conversation—the fact that the institution neither asked for nor re- received one penny of subsidy from the State, and that under State control the maintenance of the Service would be oth more expensive and less elastic than under the Institution.

The Mayor spoke of the difficulty with which local authorities were faced owing to the numerous applications for flag days. He felt that it was a form of appeal which was wearing itself out, and that the surest way of obtaining funds was to have active Branches in every town.

Mr. Robertson (Eastbourne) thought that, in all coastal towns at least, the authorities should allow one Life-boat Day every year, and Colonel Skey (Mar- gate) thought that it was a form of appeal which would continue for a long time.

Mr. Shee appealed to the Mayor to include " Life-boat Day " in the limited number of such appeals allowed in Margate, and pointed out that reports from all over the country showed that the public, and in particular the working classes, were not tired of Life-boat Days.

Mr. Shee then opened a discussion on " Administration and Finance," in which he urged two things on honorary workers.

The first was that they should make themselves as fully acquainted as pos- sible with the whole work of the Institu- tion, so that they could deal at once with any question or criticism. The second was that they should make much greater use of the Press in giving publicity to the work of the Branches.

The Institution and Salvage.

In reply to Mr. Kerby Cleveland (Margate), who said that there was a popular belief that the Institution shared in salvage, Mr. Shee said that the Insti- tution took no part whatever in salvage.

Its Boats were intended for the sole purpose of saving life. In the course of saving life, however, it sometimes .hap- pened that the crews of the Institution saved property also, and much valuable work had, in fact, been done in this way by Life-boat crews, particularly during the war. When they did this, they were entitled to claim salvage like any one else who saved property, but of the money so received the Institution took nothing.

Mr. Gomm spoke of the serious de- crease in the number of inshore fisher- men, with the result that Life-boat crews had to be recruited partly from men of other occupations. In Margate there were only fifteen men who now got their living solely by fishing. As Chairman of the National Association of Sea Anglers he knew that the pollution of inshore waters had a good deal to do with the decline in fishing and the con- sequent difficulty in getting Life-boat Crews.

Mr. Shee appealed to Branches to form Ladies Life-boat Guilds, pointing out the splendid success which had attended the efforts of Mrs. Astley Roberts, President of the Eastbourne Guild, and her fellow-members. Miss Silvester, Honorary Secretary of the St. Albans Branch and a member of the London Women's Committee, warmly supported this appeal.

Distinguished Life-boatmen.

At the luncheon at St. George's Hotel which followed the Conference, Sir Godfrey Baring presided, supported by the Mayor and Mayoress. Among those present were ex-Coxswain Albert Emptage (1893 to 1905), ex-Coxswain Stephen Clayson (1905 to 1925), Cox- swain A. T. Jones, the four survivors of the Margate surf-boat disaster in 1897, and the five survivors of the Ramsgate Crew which went out in 1881 to the rescue of the Indian Chief. These five men had been invited from Ramsgate as the guests of Messrs. K. and G.

Cleveland. After the luncheon Sir Godfrey Baring presented ex-Coxswain Clayson with the Certificate of Service, which had been awarded him on his retirement, and was himself presented by Mr. Gomm with photographs of ex- Coxswains Emptage and Clayson.

The toast of the Institution was proposed by the Mayor, and Mr. Shee responded. Sir Godfrey Baring pro- posed the health of Messrs. K. and G.

Cleveland, and thanked them for their many services to the Life-boat Cause.

In the afternoon the Margate Motor Life-boat was launched. Many of the delegates accepted Sir Godfrey Baring's invitation to " a rough sea and a strong wind at the end of a delightful luncheon" and went out in her. In the evening the Mayor and Mayoress gave a reception and dance to the delegates at the Winter Gardens.

On the Sunday morning a special Life- boat Service was conducted in the parish church by the Vicar, and it was attended by the Mayor and Mayoress and members of the Corporation, as well as by theSGodfre? members of the Conference. The Vicar preached on "The Virtue of Courage."In the evening the Life-boat Concert, given each year at the St. George's | Hotel b the proprietorS) was held. Sir n. _ . , , j theSGodfre? Barmg made an aPPea1' and the collection amounted to thirteen jpounds..