Presentation of Prizes in the London District.

AT the Caxton Hall, Westminster, on Friday, 20th April, the Mayor of Westminster (Mr. Jacques Abady) presided at the presentation of the prizes won in the Life-boat Essay Competition in London (consisting of schools in the London County Council area) in 1927.

The presentations were made by the Eight Hon. Lord Eustace Percy, M.P., President of the Board of Education.

Supporting the Mayor on the platform were the Mayoress of Westminster, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt. (Chairman of the Committee of Management of the Institution), the Hon. George Colville (Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Management), Mr. Shapurji Saklatvala, (M.P. for North Battersea), the Lady Florence Pery (Deputy Chairman of the Central London Women's Committee), and Mr. George F. Shee, M. A. (Secretary of the Institution). In the middle of the meeting, Mr. Arthur Cranmer, the wellknown baritone, sang five sea-songs, which were very much enjoyed by the audience.

In opening the proceedings the Mayor of Westminster said : It gives me very great pleasure to be here this afternoon to direct your attention to the real business of the meeting, which is to call upon the Right Hon.

Lord Eustace Percy, M.P., President of the Board of Education, to present the Challenge Shield and the Certificates to the successful competitors in London in the Life-boat Essay Competition organised by the Royal National Life-boat Institution in 1927.

As you know, for this competition the country is divided into six different districts. London is one of them, and I think about 215 London schools competed last year, which is a satisfactory increase on the previous year. You will be pleased to know that the winner of the Challenge Shield is Christopher Street, of the Battersea Central School for Boys. We are all proud of any boy or girl who is successful in such a searching competition as this is, and I am certain that those who are interested in the particular borough he comes from, namely, Battersea, will be as proud, even prouder than we are.

We are grateful to Lord Eustace Percy for sparing us the time, which must be very precious to him as President of the Board of Education, one of the most important Government Departments, to come here; and in introducing him I feel that I should say how close is the connexion between the Institution and his family, and how much the success of this wonderful Institution is due to it. As you are doubtless aware, this Essay Competition was founded by Lord Eustace Percy's father in 1918, when he was President of the Institution. He was the third Duke of Northumberland to hold this high office, now held by the Prince of Wales. It was on the coast of Northumberland that the first Lifeboat Station was established, and it was the scene of the glorious exploit of that national, I might say world-renowned, heroine, Grace Darling, which will never be forgotten by boys and girls. (Applause.) Lord Eustace Percy.

After presenting the shield and other prizes, Lord Eustace Percy said : The Mayor has said that this was the main business of the afternoon, but I do not think that my address is at all the main business of the afternoon.

I fancy that the one thought in the minds of the audience will be," how soon are we going to get on to the Sea Songs ? " I shall not detain you very long.

One of the difficulties in speaking about the Royal National Life-boat Institution is that its importance is so fully realised in the country, and it already has such a great name, that it is impossible to find anything new to say about it. But I think it is worth while, even at the cost of repetition, to remind ourselves of what the situation really is. The maintenance of the whole organization of Lifeboat work round our coasts is in the hands of this Institution and is supported out of voluntary funds. It is voluntary funds, voluntary work and voluntary heroism which carries on the whole of this great national enterprise.

(Applause.) The fact that we leave it in the hands of a voluntary organization, and that we are not only content to leave it there, but that we are, I fancy, determined that it shall remain there, shows more than any other fact what is, I think, the main strength of this country, the tremendous power and efficiency of voluntary organization.

But there is the danger that the very success of this Institution will make people feel that, after all, the work will go on, that there is no danger of the work decreasing in efficiency, that there is no danger of it lacking money, and that, therefore, we can sleep quietly in our beds and leave the Institution to carry on without our help. In fact, of course, this Institution always needs money and always needs workers. However efficient its organization may be, it can always be improved, and it is only if the public consistently j and continuously support it that we can mainj tain a Life-boat Service which is really worthy ] of the nation and of the men who risk their lives in life-saving round our coasts.

We sitting here in this hall owe a duty to the nation and to those whose lives may depend upon our Life-boat Service at any moment of the year, but we also owe perhaps a special duty to the men who man the Lifeboats themselves. They have the hardest part of the job. They have the dangerous and most responsible part of the job, and yet they can only carry out their job if they are continually supported by us on whom falls, and ought to fall, the main work of providing the funds of the voluntary organization.

(Applause.) It is because of these facts that the Life-boat Essay Competition in our schools is so valuable and so important. These are days when a very large number of people are anxious to use our school organization for pushing various good causes, and I have sometimes thought that there was a little danger that our schools might become so much the channels of propaganda, using propaganda in no bad sense— the channels for spreading information on various matters—that our school work might be affected. But this Essay Competition is not of that nature. It is a competition of a thoroughly educational kind. Every teacher, I am sure, wants to have his school competing in this competition, not merely because of the desirability and the necessity of awakening interest in the Life-boat Service, but because of the purely educational value of an Essay Competition of this kind. It is of immense importance that children in our schools should realize, through a competition of this kind, what responsibilities rest upon the people of this country in the way of voluntary organization and voluntary work.

These are days when boys and girls in our schools might be excused if they grew up with a kind of idea that the State and the Local Authority could be relied upon to provide all things that were necessary to salvation ; that the State which provides the schools, or at any rate maintains them, can be relied upon to perform all the work of organization which a nation needs. Because of that temptation, it is of immense importance that they should be brought, through a competition of this kind, to realize that this is not the case, that some of the most essential functions of our national life depend entirely upon volunteer work and volunteer organization and volunteer funds.

It is also of immense importance that they should realize, through that fact, that even those things which appear to be in the hands of that vague abstraction called the State really depend upon ourselves, upon the individual work and initiative of the individual citizen. That is the value of a competition of this kind.

Finally, it is my pleasant duty to congratulate all those who have succeeded in winning Certificates, and, above all, Christopher Street, who has won the Challenge Shield; to congratulate the schools and the teachers in those schools on that result, and also to congratulate all those schools and those boys and girls who have entered for the Competition, and by entering for it, even though unsuccessful, have shown their interest and their keenness.

(Applause.) I congratulate them all, and I hope that the Institution's next Essay Competition will meet with an ever greater response than the last one. In this last one I think nearly 1,500 schools in Great Britain and Ireland competed. I hope that many more will compete next time, and I wish the schools and the Institution the greatest of success in this Competition and the general work of the Institution. (Loud Applause.) Mr. Arthur Cranmer then sang " Sea Fever," " Shenandoah," " The Old Superb," " Rolling Down to Rio " and " Hearts of Oak," the audience being asked to join in the choruses of " Shenandoah " and " Hearts of Oak." Sir Godfrey Baring.

Sir Godfrey Baring proposed a vote of thanks to Lord Eustace Percy and the Mayor. In doing so he referred to the " endless acts of kindness, support and general encouragement which for generations past the Institution has received from Lord Eustace Percy's family." He referred also to the support and encouragement which for many years the Institution had received from the Mayors of Westminster.

Mr. Shapurji Saklatvala, MJ .

Mr Saklatvala seconded the vote of thanks, and in the course of his speech he said : There are certain human instincts and certain human qualities which we all admire and to which we all pay respect, irrespective of all differences of opinion in matters of politics or anything like that. (Applause.) The one great quality which, from times immemorial, human beings have all admired is physical courage. The other great quality which we all revere is the application of physical courage for an entirely selfless purpose in the succour of those who are in trouble.

This Institution maintains essentially those two qualities, the spirit of courage and the spirit of help to those who are in the need of help regardless of the consequences that may come to those brave men who go out to help.

There is another element associated with this afternoon's function which is also one of the general qualities in human life—the spirit of youth. There is no doubt about it that a movement like the Life-boat Institution depends much on the rashness, I might say, and the fearlessness of youth, and we are glad to see that to-day's function brings to the surface those boys and girls who from their youth show an appreciation of the qualities that are needed by them in after life.

(Applause.) I entirely agree that this Institution must be voluntary. It would be impossible to have a Board or a Minister of the State ordering liferescues.

Here a voluntary spirit and voluntary work is absolutely essential. But I do not see why the State cannot be as much a volunteer in contributing funds as any other man or woman. The State must realize that if citizens did not do this work voluntarily the State would have to do it. But because citizens are doing the work voluntarily it does not mean that the State should escape its obligation to pay, and my suggestion is, not that the Life-boat Institution should be transformed into one of the Departments of any of the Ministers—not even Lord Eustace Percy's— but that it should receive a voluntary contribution, and a substantial one, worthy of a State which has a revenue of hundreds of millions of pounds. We trust that in return for our Vote of Thanks, Lord Eustace Percy will go to the Cabinet and demand a grant for this Institution. (Laughter and Applause.) In returning thanks Lord Eustace Percy said: It is a very attractive suggestion that you should have a large grant from the State to be spent entirely and wholly at your discretion.

I have never heard of a Government grant which started off quite as generously as that, but I have heard of Government grants that started off nearly as generously, and the history of all those grants is the same. The string tied to the grant, however tenuous and fairy-like a thread it is to start with, gets thicker and thicker and thicker, until the only thing that can be compared with it is the cable of an anchor, which effectually prevents the ship from moving at all unless the State is kind enough to let the anchor up. There are very few principles to which I still adhere (laughter), but one for which I do feel a certain affection is the constitutional principle of no taxation without representation, and I am afraid the Life-boat Institution is not likely to get a Government grant without a representative of the tax-payer very nearly in control. No doubt Mr. Saklatvala will have other occasions when he can urge this policy, and we will meet and continue the debate on another occasion. (Laughter.) The Mayor of Westminster also expressed his thanks, and announced that a small Life-boat gift would be handed to each boy and girl on leaving the hall. He then called on Mr. Cranmer to lead the singing of the National Anthem..