ON 21st November last, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, K.G., paid a special visit to Scotland, as President of the Institution, to attend a Scottish National Life-boat Assembly in Edinburgh and a Life-boat Ball, on the same day, in Glasgow.

The Duke of Montrose, C.B., C.V.O., V.D., Chairman of the Scottish Life- boat Council, presided at the Assembly, which was held in the afternoon in the Usher Hall, and the other speakers were the Right Hon. Thomas B. Whitson, Lord Provost of Edinburgh and President of the Edinburgh Branch, the Earl of Home, Colonel J. A. Rox- burgh, D.L., LL.D., the Right Rev. Dr.

John White, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt.

(Chairman of the Committee of Manage- ment), Lady Findlay, D.B.E., of Aber- lour (Honorary Secretary of the Scottish Life-boat Council and President of the Edinburgh Ladies' Life-boat Guild), and Commander the Hon. A. D. Cochrane, D.S.O., R.N. (Vice-Chairman of the Scottish Life-boat Council).

Among those present were the Lady Provost of Edinburgh, the Right Hon.

William Adamson, M.P., LL.D. (Secre- tary of State for Scotland), General the Right Hon. J. C. Smuts, C.H., the Earl of Glasgow (President of the Largs Branch), the Countess of Glasgow (President of the Glasgow Ladies' Life-boat Guild), the Earl of Mar and Kellie (President of the Alloa Branch), the Countess of Mar and Kellie, the Earl of Haddington (President of the Dunbar and Skateraw Branch), the Countess of Haddington, Lady Mary Graham (Honorary Secretary of the Isle of Arran Branch), the Earl and Countess of Cassillis, Lord Polwarth, Rear-Admiral Theodore T. Hallett, C.B.E., Sir Alexander Stevenson (ex- Lord Provost of Edinburgh), Sir Charles Barrie, K.B.E., Lord Provost Dempster t f Perth, Mr. J. R. Barnett, O.B.E., M.I.N.A. (Consulting Naval Architect to the Institution), and Mr. George F.

Shee, M.A. (Secretary of the Institu- tion).

There was an audience of some 3,000 people, including representatives from sixty of the Scottish Branches, and the Prince was received by a guard of honour of Life-boatmen.

One of the principal features of the meeting was the presentation to the Prince of the Life-boatmen who, since 1905, had been awarded the Institu- tion's Silver Medal for gallantry. In each case the record of the service was read out by Commander Cochrane.

The Newhaven Fisher Girls' Choir, in their fisherwives' dress, conducted by Mr. Herbert C. Redman, gave a pro- gramme of fishing songs, and also sang the new Life-boat song, " The Life- boatman," written and composed by Mr. Louis Drakeford. Fisherwomen from Newhaven also stood by the collecting boxes.

Twenty ex-policemen, through the kindness of Mr. Oswald Barclay, acted as stewards outside the hall, and twenty- two men of the R.N.V.R. in uniform, under the command of Chief Petty Officer N. S. Balfour, acted as stewards inside the hall. The programmes were sold by thirty programme-sellers, under the charge of Miss Symington, and the platform was decorated with flowers, through the kindness of the Lord Provost, by Mr. John T. Jeffrey (Superintendent of Parks).

After the meeting the Prince of Wales attended a reception in the Caledonian Hotel, where he met and talked to many of the Scottish Life- boat workers.

The Duke of Montrose.

In opening the meeting the Duke of Montrose said : Last week the heart of the whole country was stirred by His Royal Highness going out of his way to give a cheery word and a helping hand to the V.C.'s—the heroes of the battie- field. To-day here in Scotland we all rejoice that His Royal Highness has come here to give the same cheery word and helping hand to those who labour so gallantly in the Life-boat Service. (Cheers.) If it requires bravery to face the engines of war—those violent engines of the human brain—so also it requires bravery of no less a degree to go out on an errand of mercy on a winter's night and to face the illimitable wrath of heaven as expressed in the angry sea. (Cheers.) We here in Scotland have great maritime interests. We have the vast seaboard com- merce of the Forth and ot the Clyde and of our coastline, and we also hare the great fishing interests of the Highlands and of the Islands ; but we also have a climate subject to great gales such as that which swept over this country on Armistice Day. The Life-boat Institution has placed a large number of modern Life-boats on the Scottish coast. In 1927 there were forty-two, and twelve of them were Motor Life-boats. This year we have increased the number to eighteen, and there are two more in process of construction (Cheers.) So, very soon we shall have twenty modern, powerful Life-boats out of thirty-eight on the coast of Scotland. The Institution has spent about a quarter of a million pounds in providing these twenty boats for Scotland, and it is estimated that it is going to cost £18,000 a year to maintain all the boats on our Scottish coast. How do we stand as regards that ? In 1925, before the formation of the Scottish Council, our total contribution from Scotland to the Institution was under £10,000. In 1927 we had raised the amount to £11,800, and last year—1928—we had increased it again to over £13,000. (Cheers.) That is to say, since the formation of the Scottish Council we have increased the Scottish support by 25 per cent. But we are £6,000 under the amount required to maintain the Scottish Life-boats. Surely we cannot be satisfied by that ! I think the Institution, with justifi- cation, realises that if this matter is put to the Scottish people in the proper way, and in the way they understand, Scottish generosity and public spirit will respond. (Cheers.) It is to intensify this appeal, to bring it home to the door of every castle and cottage in this land, that His Royal Highness has been good enough to come up and help us here in Scotland to-day. (Cheers.) They say that if we subscribed only IJd. per head of our popu- lation we could put up all the money that is required. Disraeli once said that the four- penny bit was specially minted to stimulate Scottish generosity. Well, let us turn IJd.

into a fourpenny bit, and let every person in this country send that amount to the Insti- tution. (Cheers.) Turning to the Prince, the Chairman said : Your Royal Highness, it is extremely good of you to come here to-day and to help us in the way that you are doing. Your visit is greatly appreciated. (Cheers.) I did hope to have here to-day on the platform to present to you a gallant old man, Alec Gardiner, the Hon. Secretary at Campbeltown, but he writes to me that he is crippled by exposure.

He says : " Aye, I would just like fine to grip the hand of the Prince. I know him to be a white man through and through. He has done more than anybody else for our grand old Service." (Cheers.) That is what all Life-boatmen say. That is what we all feel. You have come here this afternoon and set an example which all our people would do well to follow. (Cheers.) Presentations.

The Prince of Wales then presented to Coxswain Angus McPhail, of Thurso, the two framed Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum which had been awarded to him for gallant services in 1929 to the trawler Edward VII., of Grimsby, in February, and to a cutter of H.M.S. Marlborough in September.* Mr. G. L. Thomson, the Honorary Secretary of the Stromness Branch since 1903, and one of the two Honorary Secretaries in Scotland who have received the honour of being appointed Honorary Life Governors of the Institution, was then presented to the Prince. The other Honorary Life Governor, Mr. J. A. Gardiner, Honorary Secretary at Campbeltown, South- end and Machrihanish from 1899 to 1929, was prevented by illness from being present. Six of the seven Scottish Life-boatmen who have won the Institution's Silver Medal for gallantry since 1905 were then presented to the Prince : Coxswain Walter Fairbairn, Dunbar (1905).

Second Coxswain James Sim, of Fraser- burgh (1912).

Coxswain James Chisholm, of St. Andrew's (1912).f Coxswain Andrew Cunningham, of Crail (1914).

Coxswain James Cameron, of Peterhead (1916).

Coxswain John Innes, of Newburgh (1923).

Coxswain Robert Greig, of Stromness (1908), was prevented by illness from being present.

In each case Commander the Hon. A. D.

Cochrane, D.S.O., R.N., Vice-Chairman of the Scottish Life-boat Council, gave an account of the service for which the award had been made.

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

I can assure you it is a great pleasure to have been able to come up to Edin- burgh to address such a fine audience on such a very important subject. I am told that Branches of the Life-boat Institution from every part of Scotland, including the more remote places, such as Wick, Thurso, Campbeltown, Strom- ness, and Stornoway, are represented here to-day amongst the audience.

(Cheers.) This is, indeed, a proof of the keen interest which not only the Scottish Advisory Council, but the * Accounts of these services appeared in The Lifeboat for March, 1929, and November, 1929, respectively.

f Coxswain Chisholm died on 14th March of this year.

supporters of the Life-boat Institution and the public generally in Scotland, take in this great national Service, whose efficiency and power for good we are here to promote this afternoon.

I am sure you will agree that to have made an important feature of bringing forward those Scottish Life-boatmen who have distinguished themselves by conspicuous service in the last twenty- five years was a very good idea, and I need not tell you how very proud I am to have met these gallant men.

(Cheers.) I will name just one, Mr.

Thomson, the Hon. Secretary of the Stromness Life-boat Station. As you have already heard, he has been a distinguished Life-boatman himself. I much regret that we have not also had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Alec Gardiner, of Campbeltown, this afternoon.

A GOOD BEGINNING.

First of all, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to thank you and con- gratulate you on the results you have already achieved, and which have been described by the Chairman—results which, I feel sure, are only the begin- nings of a big move forward all along the line in the task of bringing before the Scottish people the magnificent work of the Life-boats, and thereby securing for it the generous measure of support which Scotland has never failed to give to any cause which is at once great, practical, beneficent and national.

I should like to thank you, Mr.

Chairman, and the other office-bearers of the Scottish Council and all its members and all the Honorary Secre- taries of Branches, especially the Hono- rary Secretaries and Committees of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, who have brought about such a notable improve- ment. But I do hope that we shall not think we have done enough. Like a celebrated character in fiction, I want to " ask for more " ; not so much for more money as for more service. I know that the Scottish Council are very anxious to see more active work in many of the Branches, and to secure Honorary Secretaries and to establish Ladies' Life-boat Guilds in different towns where they do not yet exist.

An APPEAL FOR PERSONAL HELP.

I should like, therefore, to appeal to all to come forward with an offer of personal service on behalf of this great cause in their respective localities.

Above all, I should like to appeal to the women who, through the organiza- tion of Ladies' Life-boat Guilds, have elsewhere achieved such wonderful re- sults, and have shown that in the service of the Life-boat Cause they have found a bond of union. You may be surprised that I do not ask for larger financial support. It may be, perhaps, you will credit me with being a bit canny in that. (Laughter.) But I know very well that if men and women will come forward in every part of Scotland to further the Life-boat Cause, the response will be beyond doubt, and will be given with that magnificent measure of generosity with which the Scottish people have always met claims of this kind. (Cheers.) THE FACTS.

But you are entitled to ask whether my appeal for a wider measure of service is justified by facts; and here again the survey which the Duke of Montrose has given you gives over- whelming proof of the thoroughness and rapidity with which the Institution has supplied all your coasts with those large and powerful Motor Life-boats, which have proved to be so efficient in the arduous work of the Service. You have also learned of the very large, though unavoidable, expenditure, both in capital costs and maintenance, which this efficient organisation involves. The capital expenditure of £250,000 for boats, boat-houses, and slipways, with the addition of two more Motor Life- boats, gives you a fleet of twenty out of a total of thirty-eight on the Scottish coast, and an annual cost of main- tenance for all your boats, boat-houses, etcetera, amounting to about £18,000.

You will see, therefore, that, deeply encouraging as is the progress already achieved since the establishment of the Scottish Advisory Council, you have before you the aim of increasing the sum annually raised in Scotland from about £14,000 to about £18,000 a year.

AN APPEAL TO WISHING INDUSTRY.

I said that I did not make a definite appeal for funds, but I hope I may be allowed to suggest that that great industry which is moat closely associated with the sea, and whose ships are, from the very nature of their work, more frequently assisted by the Life-boats than any other, might perhaps see their way to make some corporate contribu- tion of, say, 5s. per ship per annum.

Two years ago I ventured to make a similar suggestion to the big shipping companies which own the passenger and ocean liners, and I should like here and now publicly to express my warm thanks for the way in which the P. & 0.

Company and its associated groups, under Lord Inchcape ; the White Star Line, the Royal Mail and the Union Castle Lines, under Lord Kylsant; and the Cunard Company, under Sir Thomas Royden, have responded to my sugges- tion ; and, further, I have recently heard from my friend Mr. Beattie, the President of that great company, the C.P.R., that his company will also be very pleased to give a modern Life-boat to be placed at some point on our coast (Cheers.) I feel it would be gratifying if the great trawler and drifter companies, and perhaps the individual owners of these vessels, whose crews are made up of the same fine stamp of men as the Life-boat Crews, were to make the small annual contribution which I have suggested. (Cheers.) I feel sure that with such help, with the generous services of the men and women who are already working so nobly in the Life-boat Cause, with the stimulus supplied by the work of the Scottish Life-boat Council, and with the splendid leadership of the Glasgow Branch, which has increased its contri- butions by £1,000 in each of the last two years, the financial object which you would wish to achieve will be attained in a comparatively short time.

Scotland was so early in the field in its recognition of the need of Life-boat service that you actually had five stations on the Scottish coast twenty years before the Royal Life-boat Insti- tution was founded. Indeed, two of your stations, St. Andrews and Mont- rose, were actually established in 1800, eleven years after the first Life-boat, the Original, was built by Greathead and stationed at South Shields, and only two years after the second English Life-boat was placed at North Shields.

The year 1802 saw your third and fourth Life-boats, established at Aber- deen and Ayr, and the people of Arbroath obtained another of Great- head's boats, which was placed there in 1803. So you will see that, although those five stations have only celebrated their centenary this year, they are entitled to point to the fact that they are really considerably older than their foster-mother, the Royal National Life- boat Institution, which, though not founded until 1824, has since then gradual]/ taken over all the Life-boat stations around the coast of the United Kingdom, the last of these being the Life-boat establishment at Aberdeen itself.

THE GREAT SACRIFICE.

Ladies and gentlemen, although thousands of lives have been saved and there have been many successful rescues, now and then the illustrious pages of our Life-boat annals are lit up by the lurid light of tragedy and disaster.

For instance, almost exactly a year ago, the whole of the Life-boat Crew of Rye Harbour lost their lives in attempting to bring help to a foreign vessel in the gale of 15th November, 1928. In thus sacrificing their lives they carried on the traditions of a Service which, like other fighting Services, has always involved the risk of the supreme sacrifice of life itself. May we not, in the words of Pericles, say of these men and their predecessors in similar dis- asters : " They gave their lives for the commonweal, and, in so doing, won for themselves the praise that grows not old, and the most imperishable of sepulchres; not that in which they lie buried, but that in which their glory survives in everlasting remembrance." Such tra- gedies are an inseparable part of the great and enduring drama of the sea, and they lend to the lives and deaths of Life-boatmen an element of the sublime. (Cheers.) We cannot guard completely against such, events, but we can do our utmost to ensure that the men who voluntarily undertake this noble task shall be provided with the best boats in design, in material, and workmanship which science can devise and money can supply. It is for this task that I earnestly invite your co-operation. I need not say to this audience that, in recommending to you the Life-boat Cause, I am confident that you will cherish and further it. Not only has it long since found a home in your hearts, but, in its growth and development and living service, it embodies the noblest ideals of the Scottish people. (Loud cheers.) The Earl of Home.

The Earl of Home moved the adoption of the following resolution :— " That this meeting, recognizing the im- portant service 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 Life-boats, and gratefully to acknowledge the valuable help rendered to the cause by the Local Committees, Hon.

Secretaries, Hon. Treasurers and Ladies' Life- boat Guilds, and resolves to do everything in its power to further the interests of this national service in Scotland." In doing so, Lord Home said: We have been made aware that this magnificent Life-boat Institution is in need of increased support, of more personal service, and of a far larger number of regular sub- scribers. His Royal Highness has been good enough to come here to explain to us the position and to appeal for our help. Turning to the Prince, Lord Home said: That is enough, and I can promise you, sir, on behalf of us all, that we will not fail you. (Cheers.) Colonel Roxburgh.

Colonel Roxburgh, in seconding the resolu- tion, said : As one who all his life has been associated with ship-owning and ship manage- ment, from the days of the ancient sailing barque and the magnificent four-masted vessels of a later date, until to-day when steam and motor vessels cover the seas, I have had the opportunity cf knowing the value of the work of the Life-boat Service. Great Britain is an island, and she continues to exist because of her sea-communications, and the safety of her ships and of those who man them is a matter of importance to every man, woman and child in this country—no matter where they reside. (Cheers.) The Right Rev. Dr. John White.

The Bight Rev. Dr. John White, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, in supporting the resolution, said: I remember one of the proudest moments of my boyhood, in my very early boyhood, was when I stood alongside and actually touched a giant Coxswain, who, with his stalwart sons, had gone out in a raging sea on the Ayrshire coast, and brought in many precious lives. To me, that man was a far bigger hero than the heroes of the Iliad, and I can remember how deeply grieved I was on hearing that my Agamemnon, who had done all this as an ordinary task and a common duty, was very much upset, so much upset at his breakfast the next morning that he could only eat six herring. (Laughter.) Our seamen have placed a girdle round the world for us. We depend on them for the necessaries of life, as was brought plainly home to us on Armistice Day, when the Scottish fishing fleet suffered a great loss— a loss that you and I and the Secretary (looking toward the Secretary of State for Scotland) are going to make good. (Cheers.) We owe them a great deal. We can repay it in part by providing an excellent Life-boat Service. (Cheers.) The resolution was unanimously carried.

Sir Godfrey Baring.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management of the Institution, moved the following resolution :— " That the hearty and respectful thanks of this Assembly be given to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, K.G., for his presence at this, the first Scottish National Life-boat Assembly." He said: My Lord Duke, we thank the Prince of Wales for his presence here to-day.

We would thank him for his splendid speech.

It is a speech which is a reward to our Life-boatmen and our Life-boat workers for the past, an encouragement for the present, and an inspiration for the future. Long si ice in the illustrious annals of the Life-boat Institution the deeds of Scottish Life-boatmen have been inscribed in letters of gold, and, therefore, I am particularly honoured as Chairman of the Committee of Management that these gallant Life-boatmen have received to-day the supreme honour of His Royal Highness's presence and His Royal Highness's commendation. In conclusion will you bear with me if venture to quote to this Scottish meeting words which were addressed to an- other Prince long years ago, but which seem to me strangely appropriate for the Prince of Wales to-day: Well may you trust him to bear himself gallantly.

Scotland can witness from heroes he springs, Undaunted his courage, untainted his chivalry, Worthy the son of a hundred kings.

(Loud Cheers.) Lady Findlay.

Lady Findlay, in seconding the resolution, said: It is my wish that you will let me assure His Royal Highness on your behalf that the women of Scotland are determined to make the Life-boat Cause their own, and by every means in their power to support this great national Service. I think the motto of the women of the country should be, " to stand by " the men in time of danger.

(Applause.) The Prince's appeal is an appeal, if I may say so, for courage—courage to overcome that very human disinclination to beg for other people's money. It requires some measure of heroism to face the public and ask them to give their pennies and sixpennies and pound notes, and that courage comes from belonging to a large army of workers, and it is to that end that the Ladies' Life-boat Guilds have been formed all over the country. It converts timid individuals into gallant groups of people who hesitate not to face the work they may be asked to do. (Cheers.) The Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, in sup- porting the resolution, said : I am here to speak for the citizens of Edinburgh, and I wish to assure Your Royal Highness that there is no city in the whole Empire ready to give you such a loyal, royal and hearty welcome as the capital of Scotland. (Loud cheers.) The resolution was carried with acclamation, and the Prince said : I do not feel worth all this vote of thanks, but I am most grateful for it, indeed, and I am going to show my gratitude by not inflicting another speech on you. (Laughter and loud cheers.).