A Response of over £750.

ON Sunday, 2nd March, through the kindness of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Institution was allowed to make a three-minute appeal as " the week's good cause." This appeal, which was sent out from London, was relayed to Daventry, Cardiff, Swansea, Bourne- mouth, Plymouth, Manchester and Bel- fast.

The appeal was made by Mr. John T.

Swan, the late Coxswain of the Lowes- toft Life-boat, and a Life-boatman with a most distinguished record. Mr.

Swan was Coxswain from 1911 until 1924. He won the Institution's Silver Medal for gallantry for the rescue of the crew of the mine-sweeper Condor in November, 1914. He won a Second Service Clasp to his Silver Medal for the rescue- of nine men from H.M. Sloop Pomona in September, 1918. In 1922 he won the Gold Medal for the rescue of the crew of the S.S. Hopelyn. In 1924, the Institution's Centenary Year, he and the other Gold Medallists of the Institu- tion, were received at Buckingham Palace by the King, and His Majesty presented to each of them the Medal of the Order of the British Empire.

At the suggestion of the Institution Coxswain Swan gave, as the appeal, his own account of the service for which he won his Gold Medal.

The response was both prompt and generous. It brought in over £750.

In recognition of the help on the financial side which, in this and other ways, Mr. Swan has given to the Institution, he was presented this year at the Annual Meeting of the Governors of the Institution with the Gold Pen- dant, which is awarded only for dis- tinguished honorary service to the Institution in the work of raising funds.

The following is Mr. Swan's talk :—• The Appeal.

" I think if I tell you about a service of the Lowestoft Life-boat in October, 1922, as I wrote it down at the time in my Log Book, you will be able to see how the Life-boats help vessels in dis- tress.

" Late in the afternoon of the 21st October, we were called to the help of a vessel wrecked on the dangerous Scroby Sands, off Yarmouth. She was the steamer Hopelyn, of Newcastle. On the way to the wreck we sighted the Gorles- ton Sailing Life-boat Eentwell, which had been trying/or more than twenty-four hours to rescue the crew. The Coxswain told us what a terrible job it had been, and would be, so we took him on board our boat. It was blowing about as hard as it could, and the sea was just as rough as it could be. It was also pitch dark, and raining hard. We soon saw it was hopeless to attempt a rescue until day- light ; so we made for Yarmouth and waited for day. Next morning, before it was light, we put out again, and reached the wreck about six o'clock. It took us nearly two hours to travel aboutthree miles under motor power. That will show you what sort of a gale it was, and we were battling straight into its teeth.

" We found the Hopelyn broken in halves and her iron plates sticking out all jagged just where we had to get alongside, so we stood a good chance of ripping the planks of the Life-boat open.

" We let go our anchor and let our boat fall alongside the Hopelyn by the help of the tide, dodging the jagged plates, open like the jaws of a shark to tear us to pieces. There were twenty- four poor fellows in the wireless cabin, which was only 12 feet square. They had been there for thirty-six hours, with the seas breaking all round them all the time. We managed to get them all off safe and sound, and the ship's cat—it was a black one, too ! It took just ten minutes. I think that was pretty smart work.

" This was thanks to the splendid Motor-boat Agnes Cross, which the Institution had stationed at Lowestoft.

You have to have the best possible boats for that sort of work.

" When the crew whom we had been able to save were put on dry land again, they gave us three hearty cheers. To hear those cheers was good enough thanks for all we had done. Sometimes I can hear them still.

" That's the tale of the Hopelyn. It's only the sort of thing that the Institu- tion's Life-boats are doing all round the coast all the time.

" But we don't always succeed. Some- times the winds and seas are too much for us, in spite of all we can do. We go out too, knowing that we may not come back. The men of Rye never came back.

" Now, I'm not asking you to go out in the Life-boat." What I am asking you to do is to help the Institution, which provides the whole Service. Remember, every little helps, shillings and pence as well as pounds.

" The Institution wants your help to build more Motor Life-boats. If the Gorleston men had had a motor, they would have rescued the Hopelyn's crew before we were called out. They've got one now. It's the Motor Life-boats we want. You give us the boats. We'll do the rest. Don't forget the address :— Royal National Life-boat Institution, Life-boat House, 22, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. 2.

And please mark your envelopes ' Wire- less Appeal'." The Response.

The response was immediate and generous. Altogether the Institution received over 1,700 replies, and the total amount contributed was £751 4s. 5d.

The individual contributions varied from ten guineas to threepence, and they continued to come in for nearly two months after the appeal was made.

Nearly 300 of the contributions were anonymous. In the other cases letters of thanks were sent. One contributor wrote again, a few weeks later, enclosing a second contribution, and saying : " I have sent to several appeals on the wire- less, but have never received a reply where it seemed to be appreciated as much as the one I sent you, so in future, if I have a few shillings to spare, I shall always send it for your Institution." The responses came from all parts of England. There were many from Wales, a number from Scotland (although the appeal was not broadcast by the Scottish stations), and a number from Ireland. The furthest north came from Perth and Dundee, and the furthest west from Sligo and Tipperary. One contribution was received from Belgium.

Among those who contributed were " an old pensioner," " the daughter of a sea captain," " an invalid of seventy- six," " an invalid of seventy-three, who is bedridden," a woman who sent her gift as a thank-offering because her daughter had just landed safely in New Zealand; another who had once been nearly shipwrecked; another whose son's life had been saved by the Ramsey Life-boat; another a widow whose only son was at sea.

One contributor on the coast, while actually listening to the appeal, heard the signals of a ship in distress off Beachy Head. Two more sent their gift in memory of their father who had been a master in the Merchant Service.

Another wrote that she was now eighty-five, and though she lived inland, she had never forgotten seeing a brig, laden with tar, coming into Aldeburgh on fire, one night in 1863 ; another that, in years gone by, she had seen nine vessels lost in one day from the Scar- borough coast. One anonymous con-tributor sent his cigarette-money for the week, and a number of contributions were received from people who were already subscribers to the Institution.

Extracts from Letters.

Many of the gifts came with letters very touching in their goodwill and intheir admiration of the way in which Coxswain Swan had made his appeal.

Here are extracts from a few of the letters received:— " It is nice to feel that we can be ' workers together ' with those who go out in the Life-boat."" We would like you to thank the Coxswain for his touching appeal. Any one listening to him would be deeply touched by such an appeal from one of the very dear men who risk their lives to save others. May God protect him and all his company." " I enclose my little bit in honour ofthe dear old man who spoke on Sunday night." " One of the best appeals I have heard. I would like the speaker to know how very effective it was." " Two shillings and sixpence for'the most eloquent appeal I have yet heard.

I wish it was more." " I thinlrfew can refuse after hearing that ' sweet old voice,' making his appeal." " In response to the irresistible appeal on the wireless last night, I have pleasure in enclosing 10s. I am ashamed to say that I have listened hard- heartedly to a great many appeals made by a similar means, but the one made last night was incomparably the best that I have ever heard. I hope the result reaches a magnificent total. With apologies for the smallness of my con- tribution." " Enclosed please find 10s. in response to the appeal so splendidly delivered by the gentleman last night." " God bless John Swan of Lowestoft and all like him. Their unselfishness makes one ashamed." " Coxswain Swan's address was splen- did. We could see the man ! " " What a blessing wireless is to man- kind, when it gives us an opportunity to hear Coxswain Swan speak and enables us to appreciate, the bravery and self- sacrifice of such men round our coast." " I enclose a contribution to the appeal made last evening by Coxswain Swan, a fine old English gentleman." " Coxswain Swan's appeal was most splendid. Please say from me how much we men unable to do these things —inland men—admire such brave fellows." " For the Coxswain's appeal. Bless his honesty and his broad Norfolk, although he is a Suffolk man ! " " As a Norfolk man I felt I must send you a small subscription when I heard the old language so beautifully rendered by the Lowestoft Coxswain." Coxswain Swan at Hammersmith.

Coxswain Swan again gave the Insti- tution valuable help by taking part in London Life-boat Day on 20th May, and in a special appeal which was made in the cinemas of Hammersmith during the week of Life-boat Day, This appeal was personally arranged and carried out by the Mayor of Hammersmith (Coun- cillor E. J. B. Spearing, J.P.). Accom- panied by the Mayor (and on one occasion, in the Mayor's absence, by Alderman Claydon), Coxswain Swan visited eight theatres and cinemas, and at seven of them made the same appeal which he had made by wireless. At these eight cinemas and one other which Coxswain Swan did not visit, over £72 was collected..