By DENIS BUTLER (aged 14J), of Stamshaw Boys' School, Stamshaw, Portsmouth.

Why I admire the Life-boatman.

WHEN we consider the higher qualities with which men are endowed, we find that we admire them most of all when they are used for the highest purpose.

It is sometimes not so difficult to be brave, or cheerful, or faithful, when we know for certain that courage is sure to bring its reward; or that a good heart will have a certain recompense, or that loyalty will prove justified. But how much harder it must be to venture our whole lives with no certainty of gain, certainly no reward, and a fair chance of losing in the end, all we have staked.

This is what the Life-boatman does, so far as I can see, and that is, firstly, why I admire him more than I admire the picturesque heroes of battle and adventure. These latter have their thrills, their discoveries and applause, but the hardy fisherman goes out with no excitement into the unknown. He knows too well what are the dangers into which he is called, he knows also that what was stolen from the sea at one time may well be claimed this. Secondly, only those who live on and near the sea ever really know anything of it.

A storm at sea ; a wreck ; a vessel in distress ; a relative on the ocean, these cannot mean so much to dwellers far inland as they mean to sailors and the people of the coasts.

And so the people who live in the country cannot visualise either what hazardous risks the Life-boatman takes when he launches into the deep. So his work remains admired and understood by only a part of these for whom he works; perhaps this in itself would not matter, but people never give their earnest help or their sympathy where they do not wholly understand. So I admire him because he has not perhaps with him the understanding and real help of the whole of his debtors.

Thirdly, the Life-boat service is wholly voluntary. Perhaps it is the only voluntary service whose servants are really efficient, since they still work at their expert tasks, for volunteer firemen or amateur policemen would not quench many fires or solve many mysteries.

I should be sorry if the Institution ever became a State or professional thing, for then its highest quality would be lost. Again, the experiment of the State Life-boat service does not seem to have been a success, at least in four countries. So I admire the Life-boatman again because his work or duty does not call him to his danger, like the soldier's or fireman's, but his motive is the forgetting of himself in service to those who need his help. Further, he has accomplished his task in real fact; therefore I admire his skill.

It cannot be easy to save lives every week of the year, and the eleven alternatives mean death almost certainly. There are tales of the wonderful handling of apparatus and boats by Life-boatmen that need sailors to appreciate the skill shown by these men. Surely if people who travel on the seas could think of the things from which they are protected by the Life-boatmen, those alone could provide ample funds for the best possible boats and gear for them ! Perhaps in years to come a small tax may be imposed on each shipping-ticket, so that every traveller who might have to claim the help of the Life-boatman shall help in his own preservation.