THE Hundred and Fourth Annual General Meeting of the Governors oi the Institution was held at the Central Hall, Westminster, on Wednesday, 28th March, at 3 p.m.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, E.G., President of the Institution, was in the chair, supported by members of the Committee of Management.

He delivered his presidential address, and presented medals awarded for gallantry in rescuing life from shipwreck during last year.

The speakers were, His Excellency the French Ambassador, the Right Hon.

Philip Snowden, M.P., Dame Caroline Bridgeman, D.B.E., Sir William Milligan, M.D., a Vice-President of the Institution and Chairman of the Manchester, Salford and District Branch, Mr. Harry Hargood, O.B.E., a Vice- President of the Institution, Major Sir Maurice Cameron, K.C.M.G., a member of the Committee of Management, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, and Commodore Sir Richard Henry Williams- Bulkeley, Bt., K.C.B., R.N.R., a Vice- President of the Institution, who spoke in the absence of the Hon. George Colville, Deputy-Chairman of the Committee of Management.

Among those who accepted the invitation of the Committee of Management to be present were Their Excellencies the German Ambassador and Frau Sthamer, the American Ambassador and Mrs. Houghton, the Italian Ambassador, the Belgian Ambassador, the Norwegian Minister and Mrs. Vogt, the Minister for the Netherlands, the Swedish Minister, the Danish Minister and Countess Ahlefeldt-Laurvig; the Consuls-General for France, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Siam, Latvia, Denmark, Lithuania, China, and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; the Lady Mayoress of London, the Lord and Lady Provost of Glasgow, the Lord Mayor of Bristol, the Mayors and Mayoresses of Bermondsey, Chelsea, Fulham, Islington.

Lambeth, Lewisham, St. Marylebone, Stepney, Stoke Newington, Wandsworth, St. Albans, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Margate, Southampton and South wold; the Mayors of Bethnal Green, Deptford, Hammersmith, St. Pancras, Southwark, Westminster, Douglas (Isle of Man) and Eastbourne, and the Chairman of the Cromer Urban District Council.

There were present the following Vice-presidents of the Institution : the Duke of Montrose, C.B., C.V.O., V.D., Chairman of the Scottish Life-boat Council, Sir William W. B. Priestley, Chairman of the Bradford and District Branch, and Miss Alice Marshall; the following Honorary Life Governors of the Institution : Mrs. Astley Roberts, President of the Eastbourne Ladies' Life-boat Guild, Mrs. Walter Beamish, Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Coventry Ladies' Life-boat Guild, Brig.-General Noel M. Lake, C.B., and M. Andre Citroen.

There were also present holders of the Institution's Gold Badge, representatives of Branches and the Ladies' Lifeboat Guild, members of the Central London Women's Committee, repre-sentatives of Trinity House, the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners Royal Benevolent Society, the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, the Royal Alfred Aged Merchant Seamen's Institution, the British Sailors' Society, the Missions to Seamen, King George's Fund for Sailors, ;he Mercantile Marine Service Association, the National Union of Seamen, the Marine Engineers' Institute, the Royal Humane Society, the British Red Cross Society, the St. John Ambulance Asso- ciation ; parties of Sea Scouts and Girl Guides (Sea Rangers and Powder Monkeys), and parties of cadets from the training ships Worcester, Arethusa and Stork.

A Message from the King.

H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES : Your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, first of all I will read the reply to a message which was sent to His Majesty the King :— " Please express to the Committee of Management of the Royal National Life-boat Institution assembled to-day under your Chairmanship my sincere appreciation of the loyal sentiments contained in their message.

" Watching, as I do with unfailing interest, the progress of the Institution, I rejoice to know that its high traditions have been fully maintained during the past year, and I congratulate those to whom you will present awards for gallantry and distinguished service.—George, R.I." (Applause.) H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.

His Royal Highness then said: Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Hundred and Fourth Annual Meeting of one of our greatest institutions, and I am very proud indeed to be taking the chair this afternoon. The Life-boat Service is one in which the very best qualities of our race are expressed ; and expressed not in one supreme effort as in war, but in a constant year to year, day and night output of heroism, endurance and humanity.

Since my recent appointment to that high position as Master of the Merchant Navy and of the Fishing Fleets, I am even prouder than before to be in the chair, because this title gives me yet another link with this great Institution, and with its crews which are the very pick of that splendid body of men, our fishermen. (Applause.) It is the business, I believe, of the Chairman at the Annual Meetings to present the Report of the year's work, and ordinarily I should, I suppose, review that work. If I were to do so I should have no difficulty in showing that, whether you look to the value of the lives saved or to the material output in the construction of new Life-boats and Slipways, this Institution is in the happy position of always returning a high rate of interest. If you look at what are sometimes called the invisible assets, you have in this Institution one of as great value as any that can be assessed in material terms. But, Ladies and Gentlemen, may we take that Report as read, and it will be my endeavour this afternoon, in recommending this Institution as worthy of your support, and of the support of the nation, to give it what I will call, for the want of a better expression, some publicity.

There are very many organisations and institutions in this country which are forced to make annual appeals to the generosity of their supporters ; and a great many of these—such as our hospitals and the other institutions and organizations which we see every day of our lives and which almost come into our lives—have a more ready response j to their appeals. But with the Life-boat j Institution it is rather different, and one of its difficulties lies in the fact that i the work of its crews is carried out j mostly in the darkness of a winter's night at some remote spot on our coast; and quite often little more is heard of that splendid work than is contained in a short paragraph in the newspapers (and maybe only in the local newspapers) the following day. So I can understand why it may require some imagination to enable some people to realize what the Life-boat Service means ; and in order to help us this afternoon, the Committee of Management have brought to this Annual General Meeting, as is their custom, those Coxswains and others who have especially distinguished themselves during the year under review. (Applause.) Quite apart from the privilege that it is to us to see these men and to meet them face to face, there are several reasons why their presence here is both suitable and interesting. They come from widely different parts of our coast.

They are typical, not of selected Crews, but of the stamp of men who are to be found in every Life-boat Crew, and this year they represent an exceptionally brilliant group of services. (Applause.) THE MEDALLISTS.

You will hear later on a brief account of the services in which these men have earned their most honourable distinctions.

I will only say here that among those present who are to receive the Bronze Medal are the Second Coxswain and the Motor Mechanic of the St.

Mary's Life-boat from the Scilly Isles, as well as Dr. Ivers from the same Station, who rendered such valuable assistance to those who were rescued from the Italian steamer Isabo; and Coxswain Upcraft, of the Southwold Life-boat. (Applause.) Silver Medals are awarded to Coxswain Lethbridge and Mr. C. Jenkins, of St.

Mary's, in the Scilly Isles, Coxswain Spurgeon, of the Lowestoft Life-boat, and Coxswain Fleming, of the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Life-boat, the latter of whom already holds the Gold Medal for the splendid service to the Hopelyn in October, 1922, and the Bronze Medal earned on another occasion. (Applause.) In fact, it would seem as if Coxswain Fleming were a collector of medals, and wanted to have the complete set, Gold, Silver and Bronze. (Laughter and applause.) Then we have on this occasion the rare pleasure of welcoming three Gold Medallists. This is the first time that three Gold Medals have been awarded since 1914, when they were given in connection with the group of services to the hospital ship Roltilla, when six Lifeboats were launched and 85 lives rescued. (Applause.) Prior to 1914 we have to go back to 1851 to find a year in which three Gold Medals were awarded. (Applause.) Now let me say a word about our Gold Medallists. There are here to-day Second Coxswain William Roberts and Captain Owen Jones, of the Moelfre, Anglesey, Life-boat, who have earned the Gold Medal for the arduous exploit in which that Life-boat rescued the crew of the ketch Excel on the 27th October last. (Applause.) COXSWAIN BLOGG.

Finally, the Institution honours for the second time Coxswain Blogg, of Cromer. (Applause.) He is known I can see to all of you. He already holds the Gold Medal, the Victoria Cross of the Life-boat Service, for the magnificent rescue of the crew of the Swedish steamer Fernebo in January, 1917.

Coxswain Blogg is the only man alive who has earned the Gold Medal of the Institution twice. (Applause.) Coxswain Blogg's achievement is one which confers honour not only on himself, not only on the splendid crew which he leads, nor even only on the Norfolk Stations, which have a magnificent record in the annals of the Life-boat Service, but on the whole Life-boat Service, whose spirit he so splendidly embodies ; and I am sure we shall all join in congratulating him on the unique distinction. (Loud Applause.) But there is one little habit which I feel that Coxswain Blogg should break himself of ; and I am sure if there are any shipowners or marine underwriters here present they would like me to bring this to his notice. Apparently he seems to regard it as an indispensable condition of the highest exercise of his seamanship, at any rate in Gold Medal cases, that the vessel must break in two.

(Laughter.) In the case of the Fernebo, in January, 1917, that vessel broke in two, each part floating away and coming to rest a mile or so apart on the rocks ofi Cromer, where Blogg rescued the crew of 11 after three heroic efforts in the Pulling Boat. In the case of the Georgia, I notice that the vessel took care to follow the same procedure, and therefore received Blogg's immediate attention. (Laughter.) I know that he will always be ready to launch his Boat to the assistance of any vessel in distress, and I can only suggest to him that he should not be too particular as to the precise number of pieces into which the wreck divides itself.

(Laughter and Applause.) I should just like to draw your attention to the way in which the services which we are honouring to-day illustrate the endurance of our Crews. The Southwold service lasted 13 hours, the Moelfre Pulling and Sailing Boat was out for 17 hours, the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Crew were working for 21 hours, and the Cromer men for 28 hours. (Applause.) Since that date the Ramsgate men, in the rescue of the crew of the steam trawler Cyclone, of Boulogne, were fighting for the lives of the crew for upwards of 30 hours.

(Applause.) THE WORK OF THE SERVICE.

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, to show you the continued and daily examples of the work which is done by the Lifeboat Crews, I should like to read a record of service dated to-day. This report has just been received from Peterhead regarding the launch of the Motor Life-boat on the 25th March during a moderate easterly gale in a heavy swell.

The record runs : " Information was received from the Coastguard that the trawler Renaissance, of Aberdeen, was ashore, and the Life-boat proceeded to the position indicated. On her way she picked up a man clinging to an oar, and on reaching the vessel took off six other men. It was then learned that the ship's boat had been capsized while trying to put out an anchor, and search was made, but no trace of three missing men could be found." To return to the record of last year's work. The Report shows that 354 lives were rescued during the year by Lifeboats and Shore-boats. Can any one regard this as a small result, or one that does not justify the building up of a great and perfect instrument for the purpose of saving life ? I personally have never had the very unpleasant experience of being shipwrecked, and I do not know if any of you have, but should this ever befall me, and should I happen to be included in the number of the saved, any doubt I might have had of the justification of this organization would very quickly fly. In fact, I should consider that the Institution had never been more fortunate in its beneficent work than on that special occasion when I was saved. (Laughter and Loud Applause.) None of us can regard the value of human life as we would that of money, because in rescuing lives from shipwreck we are not only saving lives which are mostly in the prime of manhood and restoring them to continue to play an active and useful part in the life of the nation, but we are often thereby saving homes from the shipwreck of poverty and destitution which inevitably follows the loss of the breadwinner.

THE VALUE AND COST OF MOTOR LIFE-BOATS.

For this great purpose of saving life, it is the aim of the Institution, as it has been for a century past, to provide for the Life-boat Crews around our 5,000 miles of coast the very best Life-boats, Boat-houses and Slipways which science can devise and money can supply.

Even a glance at the Report which you have will show how necessary that equipment is. You will see that some 18 Motor Life-boats are actually being built or to be laid down this year : seven Motor Life-boats are being built for England, six for Scotland, three for Ireland, and two for Wales. That list illustrates the impartiality with which the Committee of Management look at the needs of every part of the coast, because, as you will see, the needs of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as the English coast, have received the fullest consideration. Those Boats will cost from £4,500 for the smaller type, to £8,500 for a 45-foot Boat, and £12,000 to £14,000 for the largest type.

You will agree that this programme represents a formidable enterprise, but it is part of the urgent task which the Institution has in hand of transforming the fleet of Pulling and Sailing Lifeboats into one of Motor Life-boats.

Those Boats are, of course, very much more costly than the Boats which they replace, but the wisdom of the change is obvious, and has never been more overwhelmingly proved than by the Report which lies before you and by the services which we are recognizing to-day.

Except in the case of the Moelfre Lifeboat, nearly all the most successful rescues have been carried out by Motor Life-boats. The Crews of the Sailing Boats are just as fine, just as brave, just as ready, but the Motor Boat can work against wind and tide, and can get to the wreck in half or a quarter of the time. That is why we want to replace the Pulling and Sailing Life-boats by Motor Life-boats wherever we can.

That is why, Ladies and Gentlemen, a great effort is needed to provide the financial resources required to enable the Institution to complete its present task of modernizing its fleet. In making an appeal, an appeal to the whole nation, may I point out that the Institution is providing and maintaining the whole of the Life-boat Service around our 5,000 miles of coast for a sum which, including capital expenditure, amounts to less than £250,000—less than a quarter of a million pounds a year—a very small fraction of the cost of one battleship.AN APPEAL TO SHIPPING COMPANIES.

And so, Ladies and Gentlemen, I appeal to the whole nation to help on this magnificent and humane work. The responses to appeals vary according to people's means, and may I start from the top and make a suggestion with reference to these new Motor Life-boats which are planned ? I cannot help feeling that there may be generous people, able and willing to help the Institution, who might care to give a Life-boat which should bear their name, or possibly the name of some one dear to them. May I also make a suggestion to our great Shipping Lines ? I know their wonderful seamen's charities, but may I suggest that one or two of them might give a Life-boat ? What prouder thing could a great Shipping Line have than its name on one of our Life-boats ? (Applause.) It is true that the Life-boat will not be seen by many people ; it will not have very much publicity ; but think what it can do ! (Applause.) Then we come to the nation as a whole, and to the response which it can. make to our appeal, such a response as was made yesterday, on Life-boat Day in London. It was the greatest possible pleasure to me to go round and see for myself the splendid work that was being done by so many of those ladies who were kind enough to stand out for many hours in the rain collecting for us. May I thank them very sincerely.

(Applause.) Those ladies belong to the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, which was established in 1921, and which has made splendid progress. I have considerable experience of making appeals, but, Ladies and Gentlemen, or rather Gentlemen, I know it is not the slightest bit of good to make an appeal if we do not enlist the help of our women. You cannot get any distance without it. With it you can do almost anything. (Applause.) AN APPEAL TO THE EMPIRE.

I have kept you a very long time, and there are many more items on the agenda. May I conclude by appealing once again, as President of this great Institution, for the support of the men and women of our Empire. I do appeal most strongly. The Life-boat Service is worthy of your support. I appeal not only as President of the Institution.

but as Master of the Merchant Navy and the Fishing Fleets. (Loud Applause.) I will now call upon the Chairman of the Committee of Management, Sir Godfrey Baring, to read the list of those nominated for the offices of President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and other members of the Committee of Management, and Auditors for the ensuing year.

Election of Officers.

SIR GODFREY BARING : In the name and on behalf of the Committee of Management of the Royal National Life-boat Institution I hereby nominate the following noblemen and gentlemen as suitable persons to fill the various posts and offices in connexion with the Institution during the period dating on and from the 28th March, 1928, until the date of the Annual Meeting of the Governors of the Institution in 1929; also Messrs. Price, Waterhouse & Company as Auditors for the same period :— President.

H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, K.G.

Vice-Presidents.

The Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Duke of Atholl.

The Duke of Montrose.

The Duke of Portland.

The Duke of Northumberland.

The Marquis of Ailsa.

The Marquis of Aberdeen and Temair.

The Earl of Derby.

The Earl of Albemarle.

The Earl of Eosebery.

The Earl Waldegrave.

The Earl of Lonsdale.

Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Jellicoe of Scapa.

The Viscount Burnham.

Commodore Sir Richard Henry Williams- Bulkeley, Bt., R.N.R.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt.

Sir William Milligan.

Sir W. E. B. Priestley.

Mr. Harry Hargood.

Miss Alice Marshall.

Mr. Noel E. Peck.

Treasurer.

The Earl of Harrowby.

Other Members of the Committee of Management.

Mr. Charles G. Ammon, M.P.

Mr. H. Arthur Baker.

Rear-Admiral T. P. H. Beamish, M.P.

Mr. Frederick Cavendish Bentinck.

Major Sir Maurice Cameron.

Captain Charles J. P. Cave.

Colonel Lord William Cecil.

Mr. Kenneth M. Clark.

Mr. Harold D. Clayton.

The Hon. George Colville.

Sir John. G. Gumming.

Captain the Viscount Curzon, R.N.V.R., M.P.

Commander Herbert G. Evans, R.N.R.

Captain Guy Fanshawe, R.N., M.P.

Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson.

Mr. T. B. Gabriel.

Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey.

The Hon. Esmond C. Harmsworth, M.P.

Commodore Sir Bertram F. Hayes, R.N.R.

(retired).

Captain G. C. Holloway, R.N.R.

Sir Frederick Thomas Hopkinson.

Admiral Sir Thos. H. M. Jerram.

Sir Woodburn Kirby.

Mr. J. F. Lamb.

Colonel Sir A. Henry McMahon.

Commander Sir Harry Main waring, Bt., R.N.V.R.

Mr. Algernon Maudslay.

General Sir Charles Monro, Bt.

Mr. Gervais S. C. Rentoul, M.P.

The Rt. Hon. F. 0. Roberts, M.P.

The Rt. Hon. Walter Runciman, M.P.

Major-General the Rt. Hon. John E. B. Seely.

The Lord Southborough.

Colonel the Master of Sempill.

Commander F. F. Tower, late R.N.V.R.

The Viscount Tredegar.

The Rt. Hon. Wm. Dudley Ward.

Mr. H. Tansley Witt.

And ex-officio.

The Lord Mayor of London.

The Admiral Commanding Reserves.

The Deputy Master of the Trinity House.

The Hydrographer of the Navy.

The Chairman of Lloyd's.

I should think that constitutes the most comprehensive and extensive unopposed return on record. (Laughter.) H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES : I declare these gentlemen duly elected.

I will now call on the Secretary to read the account of the services for which the Medals and other awards have been given.

St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly.

The SECRETARY : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, on the afternoon of 27th October an Italian steamer, Isabo, went ashore on the Scilly Rock, north-west of the Isles of Scilly, in a dense fog. A heavy swell was running, and by night the wind had risen to a whole gale. Three small boats from the island of Bryher succeeded, at great danger to themselves, in rescuing 28 men from among the rocks and floating wreckage. When the Motor Life-boat from St. Mary's, four miles away, arrived after a hazardous journey among the rocks in the fog, night had come, the fog was still dense, the gale was at its height, and the seas were breaking right over the men in the rigging of the wreck. In the circumstances it was hopeless to attempt a rescue until daybreak, and the Life-boat stood by all night in New Grimsby Harbour.

At dawn she put out again. It was impossible to anchor to windward and veer down to the wreck, so she approached from leeward.

The men who were in the rigging slid down.

As each man reached the forecastle head, he was swept into the sea; the Life-boat closed in ; a line was thrown to thf man; he was towed out from among the rocks and dragged aboard.

In this way three men were rescued, while a fourth, who had taken refuge on a rock, swam out to the Life-boat and was picked up. All four men were completely exhausted, and one was unconscious when taken on board the Life-boat.

In recognition of this very difficult service, in which great courage was shown by the crews, both of the Life-boat and the Shoreboats, the Committee have made a number of awards.

The members of the Life-boat Crew have each been awarded the Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum.

The Committee have awarded the Bronze Medal to DR. W. E. IVERS, of St. Mary's, who i went out with the Life-boat in order to give j ' first aid, to the SECOND COXSWAIN JAMES T. j LETHBRIDOE, and to the MOTOR MECHANIC, :! J. H. ROKAHR.

The Silver Medal has been awarded to COXSWAIN MATTHEW LETHBRIDGE in recognition not only of his courage and seamanship, but of the excellent judgment and resolution which he showed in very difficult circumstances.

Each of the members of the crews of the three shore-boats has been awarded the Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum.

The Bronze Medal has been awarded to MR.

EDWARD R. JENKINS, MR. WILLIAM E.

JENKINS, and MR. ERNEST JENKINS, and the Silver Medal to MR. CHARLES JENKINS, who is present this afternoon. Mr. Charles Jenkins was in charge of one of the three boats—a motor boat—which carried a small dinghy.

This he launched, with Mr. E. R. Jenkins, and they picked up three men from among the wreckage, each man having to be hauled in over the stern of the dinghy, and separately brought back to the motor boat, as the dinghy would have been swamped with more than three occupants. As it was, the dinghy returned half full of water. Mr. Charles Jenkins thus carried out a very hazardous and gallant exploit. (Applause.) (H.R.H. the Prince of Wales then presented the Medals.) Lowestoft, Suffolk.

On the afternoon of 21st October, with a whole gale blowing, a sailing smack, Lily of Devon, attempted to run into Lowestoft Harbour; she was caught by the tide, missed the entrance, and was carried into shallow water, where she bumped heavily on the sand.

The seas were breaking clean over her, and her crew of three took refuge in the rigging.

In two minutes the Life-boat was launched.

If the men were to be rescued it must be done at once, for the smack was being carried towards a concrete breakwater, not 50 yards away.

The Life-boat anchored and began to veer down to the smack, but she also struck the bottom, and was swept by heavy seas, so that her Crew were in danger of being washed out of her. She gradually got alongside. Then a heavy sea threw her under the stern of the wreck. She was badly damaged, but not out of control. The three men jumped aboard and, with all hands hauling on the cable and the engines going full speed, she drew clear of the surf.

It was a service carried out with great promptitude and courage, and the Committee of Management have awarded the Silver Medal to COXSWAIN ALBERT SPTJBOEON.

(Applause.) (H.R.H. the Prince of Wales then presented the Medal.) Moelfre, Anglesey.

On the night and early morning of 28th October a terrible gale from the south-west was blowing. It struck with special violence on the coast of North Wales, and gusts of 85 miles an hour were registered. On that one night 10 Life-boats were out, four of them from Anglesey. One of these, the Pulling and Sailing Life-boat from Moelfre, was launched in the afternoon. She found the ketch Excel on the point of sinking. If her crew of three were to be rescued it must be done without delay, and the Life-boat rescued them by the desperate expedient of sailing right on top of the water-logged ketch.

The three men were dragged on board, but the Life-boat herself was badly damaged, her bottom being pierced by some of the deck fittings. With three holes in her, and full of water, with her jib blown to ribands and her mainsail split, she had to fight her way home against the gale. She was out altogether 17 hours. One of the rescued men died, during the night, of injuries. One of the Life-boat's Crew died of exposure. The Second Coxswain, who had been at the tiller for the whole time, was completely blind for some hours after he had landed, from the salt water, the wind, and the terrible strain of that unrelaxed watching through the whole night, while the whole Crew were exhausted by their long and terrible struggle.

In recognition of the conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty shown in circumstances of the greatest danger, the Committee of Management have awarded to each member of the Crew the Bronze Medal of the Institution, and to the widow of the Life-boatman who lost his life a pension, and an allowance for a grandchild dependent on her. The Crew is represented at this meeting by the BOWMAN, WILLIAM WILLIAMS.

The Coxswain was absent from the Station, and the Life-boat was in charge of two men, Second-Coxswain William Roberts, and Captain Owen Jones, who, though not a regular member of the Crew, goes out with the Lifeboat whenever he can. To these two men, SECOND-COXSWAIN WILLIAM ROBERTS and CAPTAIN OWEN JONES, the Committee of Management have granted the highest award which it is in their power to bestow—the Institution's Gold Medal. It is given only in recognition of conspicuous courage and leadership in face of very grave danger, and these are the first Gold Medals to be awarded since 1922. (Loud Applause.) (H.R.H. the Prince of Wales then presented the Medals.) Cromer, Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, and Southwold.

On 21st November a Dutch steamer, Georgia, struck on the Haisborough Sands on the East Coast. A full gale was blowing from the east by south, with a very heavy sea.

The Georgia broke completely in two. The after-part drifted away, and the men on her were rescued by another steamer. The forepart, with 15 men on board, remained on the sands, with great seas breaking right over the bridge, where the crew had taken shelter. All that night and next day the Motor Life-boat from Great Yarmouth and Gorleston stood by. She fired all her lines from her linethrowing gun, and got a stout rope on board the wreck, but the seas snapped it. By this time, after 20 hours, her Crew were completely exhausted. At dusk the Life-boat put back to her Station, meaning to return to the wreck again at daybreak.

Shortly afterwards the Motor Life-boat from Cromer, ordered out by a telegram from Headquarters, arrived on the scene. She, too, had been on service the whole of the previous night, standing by the other half of the Georgia, which had drifted towards Cromer, and was a grave danger to shipping, as she was right in the fan-way.

Seeing the desperate state of the 15 men, the Cromer Coxswain did not wait to anchor or use his line-throwing gun. He chose the desperate course of running alongside the wreck. The sea and the strong tide turned the Life-boat completely round, and threw her stern-first against the •wrec'k. She was severely damaged, but not out of control.

Ropes were thrown and the 15 men jumped into the Life-boat. Then, for a moment, as a heavy sea carried her right on to the bulwark of the wreck, she was in imminent danger of being completely smashed, but her engines were reversed, and before the next sea came she was thrown clear.

The Southwold Motor Life-boat had also been called out. In the darkness she passed the Cromer Life-boat returning. She examined the wreck with her searchlight, and did not leave it until certain that no one was left on board. Had not the Cromer Life-boat already taken off the men, there is no doubt that they would have been rescued by the Southwold Life-boat.

In this difficult and dangerous service, in which all the Crews showed conspicuous endurance, gallantry and devotion, the Southwold Life-boat was out for 13 hours, the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston for 21 hours, and the Cromer for 2& hours.

The Committee of Management have shown their recognition of the exceptional character of this service by exceptional awards.

To COXSWAIN ERASE. TJpCRATi, of Southwold, they have awarded the Bronze Medal.

To COXSWAIN WILLIAM FLEMING, of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, they have awarded the Silver Medal. Coxswain Fleming already holds the Bronze Medal and the Gold Medal, and on the occasion of the Centenary of the Institution he was one of the eight Gold Medallists who were personally decorated by the King with the Medal of the Order of the British Empire. Shortly after the service to the Georgia, Coxswain Fleming distinguished himself by taking out his Life-boat four times in one day, in a heavy sea, in spite of the fact that on the first of these four services he was injured.

To each member of the Cromer Crew the Committee of Management have awarded the Bronze Medal. The Crew is represented at this meeting by the SECOND-COXSWAIN, GEORGE BALLS.

To COXSWAIN HENRY BLOGG the Committee have awarded the highest honour possible by conferring on him a Second Service Clasp to the Gold Medal which he was awarded for a very gallant service to two foreign vessels in 1917, the Greek steamer Pyrin and the Swedish steamer Fernebo.

Coxswain Blogg, in 1924, was personally decorated by the King with the Medal of the Order of the British Empire.

Coxswain Blogg is the only living man who has twice received this, the Victoria Cross of the Life-boat Service.

Only six other men in the whole history of the Institution have received this honour twice for actual service, and the last occasion on which the Gold Clasp was so awarded was in 1848. (Loud Applause.) (H.R.H. the Prince of Wales then presented the Medals.) H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES : Ladies and Gentlemen, I will now call on His Excellency the French Ambassador.

The French Ambassador.

THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR (M. DE FLEURIAU) : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank Your Royal Highness for giving me to-day the opportunity of expressing the gratitude of the French nation, and particularly of the French seafaring men, to the Royal National Life-boat Institution. Many French ships and many French sailors have been helped and saved by your Life-boats during the last 104 years. In 1927, five French vessels in distress were succoured by them, and Your Royal Highness has referred to a very important service, since the beginning of this year, rendered to a French ship, the steam trawler Cyclone, of Boulogne. The crew of 15 of the Cyclone were saved by the Life-boatmen of Ramsgate after 30 long hours of tiring exertions. To the Life-boatmen of Ramsgate, to all the Life-boatmen of Great Britain, and to your Institution, we French owe a great debt. (Applause.) We have tried as far as we could to wipe out that debt by creating the Societe Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufrages. That Society is endeavouring to pay the debt by the services which its Life-boats render to British ships.

I am a member of that Society, and we have tried to do what we can. We have tried to help as many British ships as we can.

(Applause.) I have not the latest statistics here, but I am proud to say that during the 60 years, beginning in 1867 and ending in the spring of 1927, the French Life-boats succoured 178 British ships and saved 777 sailors or passengers on those ships. (Applause.) That is a result which I am proud to quote. If I were to say any more I should only be saying what my colleagues who are here now could say of their own countries.

Your great founder, Sir William Hillary, declared that the people and vessels of every nation, whether in peace or in war, were to be equally the objects of this Institution. His directions have been faithfully followed by you, and the vessels succoured by your Lifeboats during last year belonged to no less than nine nations, including your own. Sir William Hillary's principle is applied by those institutions which have been created in other countries on your model—in the Netherlands in 1824, in Germany in 1852, in Norway iu 1854, in Sweden in 1855, in France in 1865, in Russia in 1872, in Spain in 1880, in Japan in 1889, in Portugal in 1892, quite recently in ! Poland and Latvia, and only last month in Iceland.

The international character of the Life-boat Movement was publicly recognized when you celebrated your Centenary in 1924. An International Life-boat Conference, to which all countries with a Life-boat Service were invited, and in which nine nations participated, was held in London, and the resolutions adopted in favour of the establishment of Life-boat Services in all countries with a seaboard were sent to the League of Nations, and referred by it to one of its sub-committees.

In November, 1925, that Sub-Committee held a meeting in Paris, which was attended by your Secretary, and at which it was resolved to place the services of the Secretariat of the ; League of Nations at the disposal of the Inter- | national Life-boat Movement. The question will be examined within a few months at the Second International Life-boat Conference, which is to be held in Paris, where you may be assured of a hearty welcome. Your founder, Sir William Hillary, should be very pleased | at the development of the movement he initiated. (Applause.) I have up to now spoken as an Ambassador, but before I move the resolution which stands in my name, perhaps I may be permitted to say a few words in my private capacity. I have been brought up near the sea—in fact, I can say I have been partially brought up on the sea. When young, I was exercised on a Life-boat of the whaler type, without rudder, with two skippers, one at each end governing with a long oar. That boat had revolving ] seats which I found very inconvenient.

However, I had not the luck to go out in real action on board a Life-boat. Once only from the shore I attended a Life-boat expedition.

Some 35 or 36 years ago at Sables d'Olonne the Life-boat had gone out and rescued the crew of a coaster lost upon the rocks at the north of the beach. When she came back at low tide, she missed the narrow entrance to the port, and she grounded upon the very sandy beach. The captain of the port, according to the custom of the coast of Olonne and Re, immediately organized a chain of men holding each other by the arms, shoulder to shoulder; when it reached the Life-boat we were 140 or 150 men in the chain, which brought back safely to shore the Crew of the Life-boat and the rescued men. Afterwards I asked the Coxswain of the Life-boat what would happen to the stranded boat ? He replied that if the boat could be taken in the port at high tide she would be all right, because she had been carefully built upon an English pattern—the pattern of your Institution —and he was quite right. The good boat built in France upon English plans looked none the worse for her adventure. (Applause.) Since that time circumstances have led me to travel on many seas, and experience has shown to me the truth of the axiom I had so often heard during my youth, that one of the greatest dangers at sea was the land. Sometimes, when in dirty weather near some wild coast of Asia or Africa, I have said to myself : " If something happens to the ship, we shall not find here the help of the good Life-boats of our countries and of their gallant Crews." Therefore I support this cause with all my heart, and I move the resolution which stands in my name, namely :— " That this Meeting, fully recognizing the important services of the Royal National Life-boat Institution in its national work of life-saving, desires to record its hearty appreciation of the gallantry of the Coxswains and Crews of the Institution's Lifeboats, and gratefully to acknowledge the valuable help rendered to the cause by the Local Committees, Honorary Secretaries and Honorary Treasurers." (Applause.) H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES : I now call upon Mr. Philip Snowden.

Mr. Philip Snowden.

The Rt. Hon. PHILIP SNOWDEN, M.P. : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I appreciate very highly the honour of the invitation to second this resolution which has been moved in such felicitous terms by His Excellency the French Ambassador. It is a relief to me to get away for a time from the turmoil of the party political conflict to take part in a gathering of this kind which is neither a class nor a party, but a great humanitarian movement.

(Applause.) There is something in the blood of the British people which responds to the call of the sea. This Institution, the pattern of other institutions in other countries, is typical of the British race. It is national in the widest sense of the word, national in its organization, national in its support, but the presence of the distinguished representatives of other countries upon this platform this afternoon shows that its work is not merely national, but international.

Whenever the call is seen or heard, the men of the Life-boat Service never ask what is the race, what is the nation, or what is the flag of the people who are needing help.

It is enough for them that human beings are in need of succour. (Applause.) There are two or three features of the work of this Institution which specially appeal to me, and I think appeal to you. The first is that the work of the Life-boat Service typifies labour in its noblest and highest form.

(Applause.) The men of the Life-boat Service are humble fisher folk, they belong to what Abraham Lincoln called the common people, the people of whom God made so many because he loved them. We have had cases called to our attention this afternoon of heroic courage on the part of these men. Some of you will remember that Hugh Walpole in one of his stories put these words into the mouth of a Cornish fisherman, who is giving advice to a little boy : " 'Tisn't life that matters.

'Tis the courage we bring to it." That I am sure is the spirit that animates the men whom we have had on this platform just now, and all the men of the Life-boat Service. (Applause.) There is one other great lesson which I think we may draw from Life-boat work : it is a great instrument for promoting that cause to which you, Sir, have contributed so much by your efforts and by your eloquent appeals, I mean the cause of international peace. This work brings nations together, it shows a common humanity, it proves that the links that bind all the peoples of the world together are stronger and more lasting than the artificial barriers which may be reared to separate people from people. (Applause.) I should not be doing justice, Sir, to the resolution if I were not humbly to add my appeal to the very powerful appeal which you have made on behalf of support for this Institution. It is an Institution which is entitled to our support. It is doing a great humanitarian work. You, Sir, pointed out that the expenses for a year's work of this Institution represent only a small part of the cost of a cruiser or a battleship. May I put it to you in another way ? The work of this Institution is carried on on an income which is only one-fifteen-thousandth part of the aggregate of our personal incomes.

I am told that the miners, the factory workers, the fisherfolk themselves, the sailors in the tramp steamers, all contribute generously to this Institution ; and, therefore, those who are blessed with a larger abundance of this world's goods should, I think, make their proportionate contribution. (Applause.) I should like to say just one word more.

The resolution before the Meeting thanks the Local Committees, Honorary Secretaries and Honorary Treasurers of the various local branches of the Institution for the work that they have done, and I am quite sure that you will desire to associate yourself with that expression of thanks. Sir, I heartily second the resolution. (Applause.) (The Resolution was put to the Meeting and carried unanimously.) H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES : I will now call upon Dame Caroline Bridgeman to move the next resolution.

Dame Caroline Bridgeman DAME GASOLINE BRIDGEMAN, D.B.E. : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour of proposing the following resolution :— " That this Meeting desires to record its sense of the deep obligation of the Institution to the Ladies' Life-boat Guild and its many hundreds of voluntary workers for the Life-boat Cause, and its conviction of the increasing importance of the part which the Guild is destined to play in educating public opinion with regard to the value of the Lifeboat Service, and in raising funds therefor." The position which women take in public life in this country is well known, and it is practically a commonplace to say that there are hardly any new fields for them to enter, if not to conquer ; but I think perhaps it may be news to some, as it certainly was to me until recently, to learn the remarkable part which women play in launching the Life-boats, especially on the North-east Coast of these islands, where the population of the villages is often so small that practically the whole of the man-power is needed to man the boats, and therefore the women must take, their share in launching them. The work of launching a Life-boat is hardly less arduous than that of manning a Life-boat. It may entail many hours of waiting in the cold, in the wet and in the wind; it may mean many hours of anxious expectancy ; and we know that in many cases these magnificent women are helping to launch a Life-boat manned by their brothers, their sons and their fathers, and that they are willingly sending those men to rescue the lives of others whose only call upon them is that they are fellow men, and possibly fellow women, in distress. I think, Ladies and Gentlemen, that heroism can hardly rise to greater heights than that.

(Applause.) I think you may like to know that only in February of this year there passed away one of the most heroic women on that coast, who, for the whole term of her life of 80 years had lived in the little village of Cresswell. Her name was Margaret Armstrong, and for over 50 years she assisted in launching the Life-boats, and she never missed a launch.

As long ago as the year 1876 she did what was perhaps the greatest piece of work in saving life that she had an opportunity of doing in all that 50 years. There was a wreck, and she went the five miles along the coast to let the Life-saving Apparatus know of it. It was a frightful journey in the teeth of a full gale.

There she went with her feet bleeding, her clothes torn half off her back by the wind and the rain, and she reached that station in a condition of such exhaustion that she collapsed without being able to say a word ; but the Coast Guard knew her and knew what her message must be.

We cannot all be Grace Darlings, we cannot all be Margaret Armstrongs, and we cannot all emulate those splendid men we have seen here to-day, but through the Ladies' Life-boat Guild we have a real opportunity of doing something, however small, however insignificant, in helping on this magnificent work.

(Applause.) When we realize that we depend on oceanborne food for practically all but seven weeks of the year, and when we realize that we depend on our overseas trade for the lifeblood of our industrial existence, I am sure there is no one living, in however small a village, or even in the centre of a great town, who will not feel inspired, on realizing our dependence on the sea, to do something for this great work. (Applause.) Your Royal Highness a few years ago said something about the task of imagining in our minds what these men go through ; and these were your words : " It requires a strong effort of the imagination on the part of the ordinary man in the street to realize the services that are carried out at some remote spot on the coast in the darkness of a winter's night." Surely we will give rein to our imagination when next on a winter's night we sit comfortably by the fire or turn over in our warm and comfortable beds ; and when we hear the wind rage and the windows rattle, surely we will send up a prayer for those gallant men, and determine that next day we will do something practical for those in peril on the sea.

I have groat pleasure in moving the resolution.

(Applause.) H.R.H. THE PRINCE or WALES : Ladies and Gentlemen, I will call on Sir William Milligan, a Vice-President of the Institution and Chairman of the Manchester, Salford and District Branch.

Sir William Milligan.

SIR WILLIAM MILLIGAN, M.D. : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have very great pleasure indeed in seconding the resolution which has been so ably and so appreciatively proposed by Dame Caroline Bridgeman.

The Royal National Life-boat Institution has a very warm corner indeed in the hearts of the people of the North of England ; and well it may, considering the part which the North has played in its fortunes and vicissitudes.

Perhaps I may take the liberty of reminding Your Royal Highness that the first Life-boat Station was founded at Hamburgh on the coast of Northumberland in the year 1786, that the first Life-boat was built and the first permanent Life-boat Station established at Tynemouth, and that the great historic appeal for the preservation of lives from shipwreck at sea was made by Sir William Hillary from his home at Douglas in the Isle of Man. Those facts connect the North of England very firmly with the affairs of this great and magnificent Institution. (Applause.) In the North we have a very active organization which taps every great city and every town. The population in the area which is represented by the North of England District is, roughly speaking, 12,760,000 people, and our contribution last year to the funds of the Institution was £31,850. (Applause.) That represents roughly 25 per cent, of the contributions made to the Institution ; and, what is more, a very large amount of that money is secured in very small sums. I estimate that at least 250,000 people have contributed to mate up that £31,000 odd. (Applause.) I am here especially to thank the ladies for their trouble, and for their zeal in helping the Institution, and I think you will be interested to know that last year we had in Manchester and Salford alone 2,000 ladies helping us in making our appeal. That shows how widespread is the desire to help the Life-boat Service. We do not regard this Institution as a charity at all, for we look upon it as a public duty to give it our help. That is the spirit which animates all those who are connected with it. (Applause.) Without our Ladies' Guild we could not raise the money which we are raising to-day.

I commend this resolution to you. I sincerely trust that more ladies will join the Guild, and I appeal to the ladies to stimulate the zeal of their friends, remembering how large a share they -have in the success, both the present success and the future success of the Institution.

(Applause.) (The Resolution was put to the Meeting and carried unanimously.) His ROYAL HIGHNESS : I will now call on Mr. Harry Hargood to move the next resolution.

Mr. HARRY HARGOOD, O.B.E. : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, the resolution I have to submit to you does not entail a speech. It is merely to enable the Committee to dispose of two of their Boat-houses which they no longer require for the purposes of the Institution. I therefore beg to move :— " That this Meeting do approve and ratify the sale of the Life-boat Houses at Southend-on-Sea and Yealm River, which are no longer required for the purposes of the Institution." Major SIR MAURICE CAMERON, K.C.M.G.: Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot do better than follow the example of brevity which has been set by the proposer of this prosaic resolution, which I have very great pleasure in seconding.

(The resolution was put to the Meeting and was carried unanimously.) SIR GODFREY BARING : Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to move :— " That the hearty and respectful thanks of this Meeting be given to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, K.G., for presiding over this, the Hundred and Fourth Annual General Meeting of the Royal National Life-boat Institution." If I may use a strikingly novel and original phrase, I should like to say that it requires very few words of mine to submit this resolution for your enthusiastic acceptance.

Since the Prince of Wales has been our President he has rendered countless services to the cause of the Life-boat Institution, services for which the Committee of Management are deeply and profoundly grateful. May I give, as an instance, what he has done in the last three months ? In January His Royal Highness attended a film representation, organized through the kindness of Mr. Citroen, who is here to-day. Yesterday, on one of the most detestable days of an English spring, he went round for three solid hours encouraging our workers. In fact, I think the only two bright spots in a very gloomy day were first of all His Royal Highness's considerate kindness, and secondly the wonderful devotion of our women sellers. In addition to that, on the very next day he is presiding here at our Annual Meeting. (Applause.) If I may respectfully say so, we consider the Prince of Wales not only as our Royal President, but as a wise, constant and most generous friend. (Applause.) His Royal Highness long since won the hearts of the countless thousands whom he has addressed in the cause of charity, but he has done something else which is very very useful.

Eor many years past, on behalf of charities, he has opened the cheque books of, shall I say, even the most prudent amongst us. I hope this afternoon that those cheque books are going to be in universal use, and that the post of the Institution to-morrow morning will be a record one, containing increased and even doubled subscriptions on behalf of our cause.

Annual subscriptions are of the utmost importance in the finances of the Institution, and I should like to remind the audience that annual subscribers have a special privilege.

The only joke that Punch ever made with regard to the Institution was when it depicted a wreck, with a Life-boat approaching it, and a gentleman, one of the wrecked passengers, clinging to the rigging of the ship and crying, "Save me first, I am an annual subscriber to your Institution." That should be an inducement to every one, I am sure, to become an annual subscriber. (Laughter and Applause.) In the long and illustrious history of this Institution we have had many most successful meetings, but I venture to say that we have never had a more united, more enthusiastic and more successful meeting than the one which we are attending thia afternoon. It is Your Royal Highness's gracious presence in the Chair which has so enormously contributed to the success of this meeting, and in gratitude for your presence I have the great honour and pleasure of moving this resolution. (Applause.) Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley.

SIR RICHARD Williams-BULKELEY, K.C.B. : May it please Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, a very few words indeed are enough from me who have the honour of seconding this resolution.

I am particularly delighted to have that honour on account of the fact that I am the President of the Anglesea Branch of this Association, and the three men from Moelfre, who have received awards for their gallantry at Your Royal Highness's hands this afternoon, are well known to me personally. They, Sir, will go away with enhanced pride from the fact that you have presented those medals to them this afternoon, and that pride will spread from the little village of Moelfre all over the coasts of Your Royal Highness's principality. I have the honour of seconding the resolution. (Applause.) SIR GODFREY BAKINO : I ask all those in favour to carry it by their enthusiastic applause.

(The Resolution was carried with acclamation.) H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES : My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, although I do not feel that I deserve any thanks at all, I thank you for the kind way in which you have accepted this resolution. In return, may I say how very much we appreciate the presence here this afternoon of Their Excellencies the Ambassadors of foreign countries. (Applause.) We appreciate it very much, and we take it as some recognition of what we are able to do for some of the foreign ships that lose their way and get wrecked on our coasts. May I also say that we appreciate the kindness of M. Citroen in taking the trouble to come all the way from Paris to attend this Meeting after what he did for us the other day by showing that film on our behalf.

One last word to those splendid men whom I had the privilege of decorating to-day. May I wish them long life and many years in which to continue doing their wonderful work, and the very best of luck. (Applause.) (The Meeting then terminated.) Entertainment of the Medallists.

After the meeting the Medallists were entertained to tea at the House of Commons by Captain the Viscount Curzon, R.N.V.R., M.P., a member of the Committee of Management, and in the'evening they occupied the Royal Box at the Coliseum, as the guests of Sir Oswald Stoll and the management, and were given an enthusiastic reception.