THE General Strike started at midnight on Monday, 3rd May, and all the regular transport by rail and road ceased at once. On Wednesday, 12th May, shortly after midday, the strike was called off, but it was not until the Saturday that normal conditions began to be restored.

I feel that it should be put on record in the Journal that the Life-boat Ser- vice carried on during those ten most trying days without difficulty and with- out mishap, in spite of the fact that all the Stations were, of course, cut off from the Storeyard at Poplar, where the reserve Life-boats lie and the stores for the whole Service are kept ; and that the District Inspectors and Surveyors of Machinery could not visit any of the Stations.

During the strike there were four Life-boat launches. In the early morning of 5th May a French steamer, Montauban of Nantes, went ashore on the Goodwins.

The North Deal Life-boat was launched, and with her help and that of three tugs the steamer and her crew of thirty-five were safely got off the Sands.

The Kingsdown Life-boat was also launched, and while she was on her wayout to the Montauban the South Goodwin Lightship was firing guns to warn another French steamer, the Toulouse, also of Nantes, which was in danger of running on the Sands. The Toulouse let go her anchor just in time to avoid going aground, and for half an hour the Lifeboat stood by, until the steamer hove in her anchor and was able to get away without help.

On the evening of 8th May the Motor Life-boat at New Brighton brought in a yacht which she found submerged with mast broken and sails over the side.

Unfortunately, before the Station was notified of the accident, the four men on board the yacht were drowned.

Just after nine in the morning of 12th March a Bideford cutter, Curlew, was seen to be in difficulties between 7 and 8 miles off Clovelly Pier. A moderate gale was blowing with a heavy sea and rain and hail squalls. Owing to the state of the beach, it was found very difficult to launch the Life-boat, but she was got away just after ten o'clock, men and women wading out waist-deep, and a number of visitors, among them some Australians, helped with the launch.

The Life-boat reached the cutter an hour later, and found her with her propeller fouled, her mast and her sails carried away, quite unmanageable, and in great danger of being swamped by the heavy seas. Three men were with difficulty put on the cutter, her mast and sails were got on board, and the Lifeboat took her in tow, she and her crew of three being brought safely to Clovelly, which was reached at four o'clock in the afternoon. The Crew, who had waded out with the launchers, were already soaked through when they started, and were at sea for six hours.

To them and to the launchers, the Institution made extra monetary awards.

Thus, during the ten days of the strike, thirty-eight lives were rescued from shipwreck round our coasts.

At Headquarters.

Except that the hours were shorter, the work at Headquarters went on almost normally, the staff arriving with a regularity which, in the circumstances, deserves high praise. Each day theStoreyard van from Poplar picked up a dozen or more members of the Staff who live to the east of London—as well as giving lifts to other people—and brought them in without mishap, although there was, at the beginning of the strike, much interference with cars coming through the East End. Other members of the Staff walked or got lifts as best they could, and it is worth putting on record that one member walked twenty miles on each of the first two days, and nine miles a day during the rest of the strike. At the Storeyard also there was the same regularity, all the Staff and employees arriving for duty, in spite of the fact that some attempts were made to interfere with them.

While the work of the Institution went on, a number of the Staff, both at Headquarters and at the Storeyard, from the Chief Inspector to the junior clerk, enrolled as special constables, while others gave help by driving cars and in other ways. Four examples of what was done may be given.

The District Organizing Secretary for London, with his car, was a member of a flying squad of special constables. The Assistant to Chief Inspector for Machinery served as engineer on board a tug working in the Thames with a volunteer staff which he trained on board, none of them having any previous experience of machinery or stokehold work.

The Inspector of Life-boats for the Northern District, who was on his way to enrol as a special constable, was in the train which was wrecked in the tunnel just outside Waverley Station, Edinburgh. He took part in the work of rescue, was made foreman of a breakdown gang, and then worked as fireman on an engine.

The Deputy Chief Inspector of Lifeboats, who enrolled as a special constable, was not only promoted sergeant within half an hour of enrolment, but was attached to the Criminal Investigation Department for special detective work, showing an aptitude for it which aroused among his colleagues the gravest suspicions as to how and where he obtained his knowledge of crime..