WHEN Rear-Admiral F. C. Billard, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, and the other American delegates attended the second International Life-boat Conference, which was held in Paris last June, they visited Life-boat Stations in several European countries, among them our own stations at Swanage, New Brighton, and Douglas (Isle of Man). They also visited the Institution's Storeyard, and saw Lifeboats under construction at Cowes. As a result of these visits the United States Coast Guard, which is responsible for the Life-boat Service in the United States, has now asked the Institution to supply it with one of its Watson Cabin Life-boats.

In making this request, with which the Institution has very gladly complied, Rear-Admiral Billard wrote that a board of officers had carefully considered the information which he and the other delegates collected in Europe and that they had decided to try to obtain a Watson Cabin Life-boat " as better adapted to our needs than any other Life-boat we saw abroad." /.