ON th« invitation of the Mayor of Calais a party representing the Life-boat Stations on the Kentish coast crossed to Calais on Sunday, 14th August, in the Margate Motor Life-boat Lord Southborough, to be present at the unveiling, on the Monument to the Calais Life-boat men, of the names of those of them who have been decorated by the Legion of Honour. This is the second visit which the Margate, Lifeboat has paid to France, for she was present two years ago at the centenary celebrations of the Boulogne Lifesaving Society. The party was in charge of Mr. T. W. Gomm, the Honorary Secretary at Margate.

The Life-boat left Margate at nine o'clock on the morning of 14th August.

On. board were Mr. Gomm, Mrs. Gomm (who during the past two years has done such splendid work in interesting visitors at the Margate Life-boat House), Mr. Cr. Boulting of the Margate Committee, Coxswain Alfred Jones of Margate, ex-Coxswain S. Clayson of Margate, Coxswain Thomas Reed of Ramsgate, the Motor Mechanic, the Assistant Mechanic, and two Life - boatmen.

The Mayor of Margate, Mrs. Hatfield, who had been unable to accept the invitation of the Mayor of Calais, saw the Life-boat off and sent by it a bouquet to the Mayoress of Calais. A big crowd of people watched her go.

A Stormy Passage.

The Life-boat called at Deal, which was reached in two hours and threequarters, and there took on board Mr. John Prior, Honorary Secretary of the Goodwin Sands and Downs Branch, Coxswain Hoile of Deal, Coxswain Baker of Folkestone, Coxswain Griggs of Hythe, the Mayor of Deal (Mr. John Arnold, J.P.), whose father was a Life-boatman,, the Town Clerk, and the Town Sergeant. At Deal, as at Margate, the Boat -was seen off by a big crowd. She reached Calais in three hours and ten minutes after a very rough crossing, having to face a S.S.W. gale, with a heavy sea and storms of rain.

On the evening of their arrival the principal members of the party were entertained to dinner by the Mayor of Calais (M. Lreon Vincent) and the Mayoress, to whom Mrs. Gomm presented the bouquet of carnations, tied with red, white and blue ribbon, from the Mayor of Margate. Among those present were Commander Chollet, one of the Inspectors of the French Lifeboat Society, and during the evening sea-shanties were sung by boys from the Scarborough training ship Maisie Graham, under the command of Lieut. H. Heather, R.KV.R.

On the following day the Mayor and Corporation held a reception at the Town Hall, at which the Mayor of Calais welcomed his English guests, speaking first in English and then in French, and the Mayor of Deal replied.

The whole party then signed the " Golden Book of the Town of Calais." It may be mentioned that when the Deputy-Chairman of the Institution, the HOD. George Colville, after attending the annual meeting of the French Lifeboat Society in 1925, visited Calais to see a launch of its Motor Life-boat, he was told by the Mayor that he was the first foreigner to be received in the new Town Hall.

Following the reception, the whole Keatish party were present at a luncheon at the Casino. The Mayor again presided, and there were a number of speeches, all of which the Mayor translated from French into English or from English into French, as the case might be. As Le Petit Calaisien feelingly said in reporting the lufloheoD, " What a task ! " Commander Chollet spoke of the friendship existing between the French and British Life-boat Services, and Mr. Gomm replied, saying how much the British Service admired the work of the French Life-boatmen. On either side of the sea which separated the two countries there were Life-boatmen of whom it could be said that they were equally brave in facing the perils of that sea in their task of saving life.

In the afternoon came the chief ceremony. The names on the Monument to those who died in the wreck of the Pluviose were first unveiled, and following this the procession marched to the Life-boatmen's Memorial on which have been inscribed the names of the Life-boatmen of Calais who have been decorated by the Legion of Honour. Here the Mayor of Calais read out the names and records of the men, and Commander Chollet recalled the history of the Calais Station.

Established in 1867, its Life-boats had been out on service eighty-eight times and had rescued 299 lives. He recalled also that the first Calais Life-boat had been a gift from the Queen of England and had been named Prince of Wales, and said how proud he was to see before him the gallant Life-boatmen of their own coast and the English coast joining together in this tribute to the Life-boatmen of Calais. The French and British national anthems brought the ceremony to an end.

In the evening the Mayor of Deal entertained the Mayor and Mayoress of Calais and the representatives of the Institution to dinner; and on the following day the Life-boat sailed for home. She left Calais at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, piloted by the Calais Life-boat, and after calling at Deal and Ramsgate, reached Margate at 7.30.

So ended a visit in which the greatest kindness and hospitality were shown by the people of Calais and the French Life-boat Service to the representatives of the British Service.