AN International Maritime and Colonial Exhibition has been held at Antwerp this year, from April to October, on the occasion of the Centenary Celebrations of the Declaration of Belgian Independ- ence. Great Britain was one of the principal signatories to the Treaty of Belgian Independence, and it was in defence of this Treaty that she declared war on Germany in 1914. The British Government accepted the invitation of the Belgian Government to take part in the Exhibition, and a British Section was arranged by the Department of Overseas Trade. At the request of the Department, the Institution sent to Antwerp, for exhibition in the British Section, two Life-boat paintings and five models, the latter showing the development of the Life-boat from the Original, built in 1789, to the Watson Cabin type of Motor Life-boat of to-day.

In connexion with the Exhibition, the Royal Belgian Life-saving Society, of which King Albert is the Patron and H.R.H. the Duke of Brabant President, held in August an International Life- saving and First Aid Congress, lasting three days. As it was impossible for the Institution to send a delegate to the Congress, it was represented by M. Jansen, Secretary-General of the Royal Belgian Life-saving Society.

The Baron de Santa Maria, Commis- sary-General and Delegate of the Con- gress for England, has very kindly sent the following report of the references made at the Congress to the Institu- tion's work :— " The meeting of the section of the Congress dealing with Life-saving on Water met on llth August with M.

Carpentier, Senator, the President of the Federation des Societes de Sau- vetage de Belgique, in the chair.

" M. Jansen, who, on rising, was received with applause, said that it gave him great pleasure to have the honour of representing that noble British Society, the Royal National Life-boat Institution, and he only regretted, as did all his colleagues, that it was not possible to welcome some of its officials, and particularly the devoted and tireless Secretary, Mr. George F.

Shee. M. Jansen observed that the Institution was the pattern and fore- runner of all similar societies in the world, and said that the splendid results of the Institution's work, the large number of lives saved from the sea every year, the heroism of its Life-boat Crews and the excellence of its materiel, made it one of the greatest public bodies in Great Britain. After giving details of the number of Life-boats of various kinds in use in the British Isles, and the crews rescued in the past fourteen years, he stated, amidst cheers, that in five years the Institution's boats had saved the crews of five vessels flying the Belgian flag, the last being a motor vessel from Ghent, whose crew were rescued by the Ramsgate Life-boat, in January, 1930— a famous boat in the annals of life- saving on the dreaded Goodwins. He evoked memories of some of the Cox- swains of the past, and sat down amidst renewed applause.

" At the plenary meeting of the Con- gress, on the proposition of M. Schram, a vote of thanks was accorded by acclamation, to the Royal National Life-boat Institution, coupled with the name of the President.

" At the official banquet in the pre- sence of M. Segers, Minister of State, the Burgomaster of Antwerp, the Generals of the Garrison and the Consular Corps au grand complet M. Jansen proposed the toast of the Institution. In doing so he said that the gallant men who manned its Life-boats were indeed ' the friends of all nations,' and showed by their undaunted courage that they were men of the Viking breed. The toast was drunk, with applause, and the British National Anthem was played by the band of the 5th Regiment of the Line.".