The Prince of Wales's Presidential Address.

THE Hundred and Seventh Annual Meet- ing of the Governors of the Institution was held at the Central Hall, West- minster, on Wednesday, 13th May, at 2.30 P.M.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, E.G., President of the Institu- tion, was in the Chair. He delivered his Presidential Address and presented Medals awarded for gallantry in rescuing life from shipwreck and awards made to Honorary Workers for long and distin- guished services.

Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, Patron of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, was also present on the platform.

Their Royal Highnesses were sup- ported on the platform by Ambassadors, Ministers and other representatives of foreign countries ; Lord Mayors, Lord Provosts, Mayors and Provosts ; Vice- Presidents of the Institution and mem- bers of the Committee of Management.

The speakers were the Right Hon.

Albert V. Alexander, M.P. (First Lord of the Admiralty), the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Durham (Dr. Herbert Hensley Henson), Captain Sir Malcolm Campbell, Colonel the Master of Sempill, Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management of the Institution, and the Hon. George Col- ville, Deputy Chairman.

Among those who accepted the invitation of the Committee of Manage- ment were representatives of twenty foreign countries. They were: Their Excellencies the Ambassadors of France and Belgium, the Ambassador of Ger- many and Freifrau von Neurath; the Minister of Norway and Madame Vogt; the Minister of the Netherlands ; the Minister of Denmark and Countess Ahlefedt-Laurvig; the Ministers of Estonia and Hungary; the Minister of Latvia and Madame Vesmans; the Minister of Mexico and Madame Ortiz ; the Ministers of Egypt and of Hejaz and Nejd ; the Secretary of the Yugoslav Legation ; the Swedish Naval Attache ; the Consuls-General of France, the United States of America and Japan ; the Secretary of the Consular Depart- ment of the German Embassy; the Consuls-General of China, Czecho- slovakia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

The Ambassador of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Polish Consul-General, who were unable, to accept, sent donations.

The following representatives of Cities, Boroughs and Urban District Councils accepted the invitation: The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of London ; the Lord Provost and Lady Provost of Glasgow; the Lord Mayors and Lady Mayoresses of Birmingham, Bristol and Portsmouth; the Chairman of the London County Council; the Mayors and Mayoresses of Bethnal Green, Bermondsey and Camberwell ; the Mayor of Chelsea; the Mayors and Mayoresses of Deptford, Finsbury, Ful- ham, Hammersmith, Hampstead, Lam- beth and Lewisham ; the Mayoress of Marylebone ; the Mayors and Mayoresses of Paddington, Poplar, Stepney, Stoke Newington and Westminster ; the De- puty Mayor and Mayoress of Acton and the Chairman of the Tottenham Urban District Council; the Mayors and Mayoresses of Christchurch, Hartlepool, Margate, Oxford, St. Albans, Southamp- ton, the Provost of St. Andrews, the Deputy Mayor of Eastbourne, and the Chairmen of the Urban District Councils of Clacton-on-Sea and Cromer.

There were also present the following office-holders of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild : The Duchess of Norfolk, a Vice- Patron ; the Duchess of Sutherland, President; and the Lady Magdalene Williams-Bulkeley, a Vice-President.

Among others who accepted the invitation were representatives of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, the National Safety First Association, the National Union of Seamen, the British Sailors' Society, the Marine Engineers' Association, the Mercantile Marine Ser- vice Association, the Shaftesbury Homes, the Royal Alfred Aged and Merchant Seamen's Institution ; a party of fifty boys from St. Paul's School; an Officer and twenty cadets from H.M.S.

Worcester: an Officer and fifty boys from the training ship Arethusa: a party of forty-five boys from the Boys' Brigade, and a party of thirty-five Sea Rangers from the Girl Guides Associa- tion.

There were also present Honorary Life Governors of the Institution; holders of the Institution's Gold Badge ; members of the Central London Women's Committee of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, and representatives of Branches and Guilds.

Before the meeting began, Mr. Arthur Meale, F.R.C.O., the organist of the Central Hall, played a selection of sea- music.

The following is a report of the meeting :— H.R.H. The Prince of Wales.

After the Annual Report for 1930 had been formally presented to the meeting, by Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., Chairman of the Committee of Management, and approved, His Royal Highness said: Your Royal Highness, Your Excel- lencies, My Lords, Ladies and Gentle- men, this is the third time I have presided at the Annual Meeting of this great Institution. On the last occasion when I did so, in 1928, I ventured to do a little publicity work, which, I am glad to say, has been fruitful. I did so, first, by giving a brief survey of the work of the Institution as shown in the Annual Report, and then by appealing to the great passenger-liner companies with the suggestion that they might link themselves with the Life-boat Service by presenting some of the most modern Motor Life-boats, which would bear their names. As you know, the response has been most generous, and you now have on the coast five fine Life-boats given by several of the great passenger- liner companies, to whom I would like again to express my sincere thanks.

(Applause.) THE LIFE-BOATMEN.

I have thought a good deal about how I could best help the Institution to draw advantage from this meeting. Of course, the best publicity it can possibly have lies in the fact that we have on this platform a number of men coming from every part of the coast who have won distinction and rewards for the courage, endurance, seamanship and humanity which they have shown in the Service.

(Loud applause.) And it will be my pleasure later on to hand them the awards which they have so truly earned.

But it has occurred to me that it would be interesting to review the Institution's work, and to look at what has been done from the 1st January, 1928, when I last presided at an Annual Meeting, to the 1st January of this year.

I find that no less than 1,319 lives were rescued during those three years' (loud applause) of which 1,009 were rescued by Life-boats, and 310 by shore-boats, these rescues being in every case rewarded by the Institution.

INTERNATIONAL CHARACTER OF THE SERVICE While the character of the Service is national in every sense of the word, the results of it are international. I find that fourteen nations benefited by the action of British Life-boat Crews within the last three years, up to the end of 1930, by the fact that some of their citizens, mostly, no doubt, men doing the valuable work of merchant seamen, owed their lives to the voluntary services of our Life-boat Crews.

I find, too, that our survey gives fresh confirmation of the enormous value of the Motor Life-boats as an instrument of life-saving. Not only have the great majority of the 1,009 saved by Life-boats been rescued by Motor Life-boats, but it is safe to say that many of the rescues could only have been carried out by these motor boats. It must be a satisfaction to those who have given Motor Life-boats (such as the great shipping companies) and to the relatives of those whose bequests have enabled the Institution to place such boats on the coast, to know what a wonderful means of rescue these boats represent.

SCOTLAND'S FINANCIAL ACHIEVEMENT.

Now I turn to more recent events, and I want to draw special attention to two matters, one of which is dealt with in the Annual Report, which pays a tribute to the magnificent achievement of Scotland in increasing its generous contributions in support of the Service by nearly 80 per cent. (Applause.) In 1930, a year of widespread industrial depression and unexampled unemploy- ment, Scotland increased its contribu- tion by £12,000 to over £28,000 (Ap- plause), and Glasgow has, at one bound, leapt into the position of the first city in the United Kingdom in its support of the Life-boat Service by raising over £13,000. (Applause.) It has for the first time displaced the City of London Branch from its traditional leadership in the financial support afforded to the Life-boat Service, while Liverpool and Manchester have, for the moment, fallen to the third and fourth, places. I feel sure, my Lord Mayor, that the City of London will not long allow the northern city to hold the place of honour which London has so long maintained, and that when Lancashire emerges, as we all most heartily hope it soon will, from the terrible distress which it is now facing, and facing with so much courage, Liverpool and Manchester will once again achieve the generous results which for generations past they have attained in their efforts on behalf of the cause in which we are so interested.

SCOTLAND'S LIFE-SAVING ACHIEVE- MENT.

Meanwhile I know that you will join with me in offering our thanks to the Scottish people, and our warm congratu- lations to the Duke of Montrose and the Scottish Advisory Council for an achieve- ment of which we may truly say that it harmonises with the record of Scottish Life-boatmen in the annals of the Institution. For the Longhope boat earned the only Silver Medal which was awarded last year; and in February last the Lerwick Life-boat, which was only sent to her Station last summer,, carried out a splendid service, which' embraced the succour of two vessels, covering a period of twenty-two hours under the worst conditions of wind and sea, and resulted in the saving of thirty-two lives.

Again, only a few weeks since, two Scottish Coxswains, who are here to-day, won the Bronze Medal. One is Coxswain McPhail, of Thurso, to whom I presented two Vellums only eighteen months ago at the Scottish National Assembly at Edinburgh. The other is Coxswain Fenton, of St. Andrews.

These Coxswains rescued the crews of two vessels, the services in each case being carried out in the middle of the night to wrecks lying in shallow waters surrounded by rocks. (Applause.)

IRISH GALLANTRY.

From Shetland in the far north let us turn to the west coast of Ireland, to the little port of Fenit, County Kerry, where the Institution has placed a Motor Life- boat, one of fifteen which you will find on the coast of the Free State. At this spot a very gallant service was carried out last November by three Irish fishermen in a small open boat. What I want you to realise is that these three men were facing a very great risk them- selves. Every time a Life-boat is launched in bad weather the crew run a chance of disaster; and though the Institution does its utmost to diminish these risks, it cannot guard completely against tragedies such as overwhelmed the Salcombe Life-boat in 1916, and the Eye Harbour Life-boat in 1928. But imagine the danger of putting out in a whole gale in a small rowing boat to attempt to rescue several men whose additional weight must in itself add to the dangers of the rescue. Only a seaman, accustomed to handling small boats in bad weather, can fully appre- ciate the courage and the skill required to carry out such a task. But we shall all agree in saluting these brave men, and congratulating them on a heroic rescue, by which they have all earned the Bronze Medal. (Applause.) In the light of such shore-boat services on the Irish coast, you will be glad to know that the Committee of Management have given the fullest con- sideration to the needs of that coast.

In view of the large preponderance of Motor Life-boats on the Irish coast, it is with particular pleasure that we learn that Mrs. Cosgrave, the wife of the President of the Free State, is to perform the Naming Ceremonies of the Life- boats at Courtmacsherry, Ballycotton and Youghal in July, thus giving proof of the warm sympathy which the citizens of the Irish Free State are according to the Life-boat Service.

(Applause.)

RETIREMENT OP MR. GEOEGE F. SHEE AND CAPTAIN HOWARD ROWLEY.

Now I have to refer to two losses, one of which the Institution has already sustained by the retirement of Captain Rowley from the office of Chief In- spector of Life-boats. As District In- spector, Deputy Chief Inspector and Chief Inspector, he served for twenty- eight years, during which time his great ability and high sense of duty were constantly placed at the service of the Institution. (Applause.) The second loss is the impending retire- ment of the Secretary of the Institu- tion, Mr. George Shee. He will have been Secretary for twenty-one years.

He came to the Institution at a very difficult time, and during his Secretaryship the Institution has seen a greater development than in any pre- vious period of its history. (Loud applause.) During that time half the fleet has been converted to a motor fleet. In 1910 there were nine motor boats ; now there are ninety-five. The financial side of the Institution's work has kept pace with this development, which is in a large measure the work of Mr. Shee. (Applause.) I could say a great "deal more of what he has done, but I know that I am voicing the opinion of all who are interested in this Institu- tion when I wish him health and happi- ness in his retirement, and thank him for his splendid services. (Loud applause.)

HELP OF THE CIVIL SERVICE.

The Annual Report shows how much the Institution is indebted to a large number of benefactors for gifts of boats and other generous forms of support; and I have already referred to the response of the passenger-liner com- panies to the appeal which I made in 1928. There is another body to whom we are very much indebted, and that is the Civil Service. They have decided to take a large part in the work of the Institution by providing a little fleet of Life-boats which bear the name of the Civil Service. Their contributions to this Fund began in 1866, and have amounted to over £83,000. This fleet has now three Motor Life-boats and two Pulling and Sailing Life-boats, and the Civil Service can point to 1,276 lives rescued by this little fleet. Of that record it has every right to feel proud.

(Loud applause.)

AN APPEAL TO TRAWLER-OWNERS.

Now I am going to make another appeal, as I did last time, but on a much more modest basis than the one which I made to the shipping companies. I would make an appeal to the companies of trawler-owners and the individual owners of trawlers, drifters and fishing vessels generally. I know full well that for them, as for everybody else, these are very bad times, and they will not be able to give as generously as they would possibly like to do ; but I would remind them that a very large proportion of the effective Life-boat services are rendered to boats and vessels of this class. In fact, during the three years 1928, 1929 and 1930, 317 lives were rescued from trawlers and other fishing boats, or 31 per cent, of the whole number saved.

I would suggest for their consideration that these great trawler companies should give, not a Motor Life-boat, but a contribution of, say 5s. per annum for every trawler or drifter. I am sure, too, that the seamen who constitute the crews of these fishing vessels are in warm sympathy with the Life-boat Crews who have rescued so many of their fellow seamen.

THE LADIES' LIFE-BOAT GUILD.

There is one more appeal to-day which I feel will meet with a generous response, or, at any rate, will be received with sympathy. It is ten years since the Ladies' Life-boat Guild was established, when I took the chair at the Annual Meeting for the first time. I suggested then that if women put their hearts into a great cause, the great cause is won.

To-day we are delighted to have with us on the platform Her Royal Highness Princess Louise (Loud applause), who, with her ready recognition of what constitutes a national undertaking, gave it her sympathy, and accepted the position of Patron of the Guild. I am very glad to tell your Royal Highness, on behalf of the Institution, that the little group of women who gathered round you ten years ago have increased to many thousands, and the work they have done, both by personal efforts and by persuasion, has been wonderfully successful. (Loud applause.) I know that I am expressing your most earnest wish by appealing to the women of London to come forward as workers on Tuesday the 19th May, which is Life-boat Day throughout Greater London ; and to the people of London, men, women and children, to see that they wear a Life-boat Badge upon that day. I am glad to see not only the Lord Mayor of London with us this afternoon, but the Mayor of West- minster and the Mayors of the majority of the London Boroughs ; and I would ask them and the Lady Mayoresses to give their support, both civic and personal, to ensure that Life-boat Day will be the most successful one held in London. If every citizen gave but one penny, we should get £30,000, which would provide three 45-ft Motor Life- boats, or seven 35-feet Motor Life-boats.

That is quite an interesting statistic, and worth taking away in your minds this afternoon. There is one point which I forgot to mention as regards Life-boat Day on Tuesday the 19th May, it is, that, at the suggestion of Princess Louise, the Duchess of York has consented to visit some of the depots on that day. (Loud applause.)

THE NATIONAL EXAMPLE OF THE SERVICE.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have kept you too long already, but in conclusion, I would like to say that in the ten years since I first presided at an Annual Meeting I have kept in very close touch with the movement, and I have had opportunities of actually seeing the Life- boats and the launching of the Life- boats and getting to know their work, and I have had opportunities of watch- ing the progress of the Institution and the way in which it is supported. Our nation has in the Life-boat Service a wonderful asset, in which a great ideal, the service of humanity, is carried into action year by year, day by day, without any heroics on the part of the men who man the Life-boats, and who constantly exemplify all the qualities which make up a great character.

Let us bring to bear upon the grave problems with which we are confronted, the voluntary co-operation, the freely accepted discipline and the common sacrifice which actuate every Life-boat Crew. It is because the Life'-boat Service offers you the finest example of national character and achievement in the sphere of human enterprise, and a type of united service in a great cause, that I commend it to the generous sup- port of the people of Great Britain and Ireland, so that the Institution may continue to provide the Life-boat Crews with the best weapons with which to carry out their noble battle for the lives of those who may be shipwrecked on the shores of these islands. (Loud and prolonged applause.) I will now call on Sir Godfrey Baring to read a list of those nominated for election as President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, and other members of the Committee of Management, and the Auditors for the ensuing year.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt.

SIR GODFREY BARING : In the name and on behalf of the Committee of Management of the Royal National Life-boat Institution I hereby nominate the following noblemen and gentlemen as suitable persons to fill the various posts and offices in connexion with the Institution during the period dating on and from the 13th May, 1931, until the date of the Annual Meeting of the Governors of the Institution in 1932. Also Messrs. Price, Waterhouse & Company as Auditors for the same period.

Committee of Management.

President.

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

Vice-Presidents.

The Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Duke of Atholl.

The Duke of Montrose.

The Duke of Portland.

The Marquis of Ailsa.

The Marquis of Aberdeen and Temair.

The Earl of Derby.

The Rev. the Earl of Devon.

The Earl of Albemarle.

The Earl of Lonsdale.

Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Jellicoe of Scapa.

The Viscount Grey of Fallodon.

The Viscount Burnham.

Commodore Sir Richard Henry Williams- Bulkeley, Bt., R.N.R.

The Lord Southborough.

Major-General the Right Hon. John E. B. Seely.

The Hon. George Colville.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt.

Sir W. E. B. Priestley.

Mr. Harry Hargood.

Miss Alice Marshall.

Mr. Noel E. Peck.

Treasurer.

The Earl of Harrowby.

Other Members of the Committee of Management.

Mr. James Bryce Allan.

Mr. Charles G. Ammon, M.P.

Mr. Ernest Armstrong.

Mr. H. Arthur Baker.

Rear-Admiral T. P. H. Beamish, M.P.

Lieut.-Colonel J. Benskin.

Mr. Frederick Cavendish Bentinck.

The Earl of Brecknock.

Major Sir Maurice Cameron.

Captain Charles J. P. Cave.

Colonel Lord William Cecil.

Mr. Kenneth M. Clark.

Sir John Collie.

Sir John G. Gumming.

Engineer Vice-Admiral Sir Robert B. Dixon.

Admiral Sir A. A. M. Duff.

Commander Herbert G. Evans, R.N.R.

Captain Guy Fanshawe, R.N.

Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson.

Mr. K. Lee Guinness.

Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey.

Commodore Sir Bertram F. Hayes, R.N.R.

(retired).

Captain G. C. Holloway, R.N.R.

Sir Frederick Thomas Hopkinson.

Captain the Earl Howe, R.N.V.R.

Mr. John F. Lamb.

Colonel Sir A. Henry McMahon.

Commander Sir Harry Mainwaring. Bt., R.N.V.R.

Mr. Algernon Maudslay.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Francis Oliver.

Sir Gervais S. C. Rentoul, K.C., M.P.

The Rt. Hon. F. 0. Roberts, M.P.

The Rt. Hon. Walter Runciman, M.P.

Colonel the Master of Sempill.

Colonel R. F. A. Sloane-Stanley.

Commander F. F. Tower, late R.N.V.R.

The Rt. Hon. William Dudley Ward.

And ex-officio.

The Lord Mayor of London.

The Admiral Commanding Reserves.

The Deputy Master of the Trinity House.

The Hydrographer of the Navy.

The Chairman of Lloyd's.

No one else has been nominated. I therefore declare these gentlemen duly elected.

Presentation of Medals for Gallantry.

The PRESIDENT : I now call upon the Secretary to read the accounts of the services for which Medals and other awards have been given.

The Secretary then read the accounts of the services, and the Medals were presented by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, as follows :— To COXSWAIN ROBERT HOOD, of Hartlepool, Durham, the Bronze Medal for the rescue, on 26th September, 1930, of the crew of nine men of the Danish auxiliary schooner Doris.

To COXSWAIN FREDERICK BARNES, of Selsey and Bognor, Sussex, the Bronze Medal for the rescue on 2nd November, 1930, of the two men of the yacht Lucy B, of Rye.

To Mr. J. DAVIES, Bowman, of Cromer, Norfolk, a Bar to his Bronze Medal for going overboard from the Life-boat to the rescue of a drowning man on 17th February, 1931.

To COXSWAIN R. FENTON, of St. Andrews, Fifeshire, the Bronze Medal for the rescue on 9th March, 1931, of the crew of ten of the steam trawler Loch Long, of Aberdeen.

To COXSWAIN ANGUS McPHAiL, of Thurso, Caithness-shire, the Bronze Medal for the rescue, on 18th March, 1931, of the crew of four of the schooner Pet, of Chester.

To Mr. JOHN CAHILL, of Tralee, County Kerry, the Bronze Medal for the rescue, on 7th November, 1930, of the crew of three of the steamer Co-operator, of Tralee. Mr. Cahill carried out the rescue in a small boat, accompanied by his son, Mr. Joseph Cahill, and another fisherman, Mr. John Nolan.

Each was awarded the Bronze Medal.

(A full account of the services at Hartlepool, Selsey and Bognor and Tralee appeared in the last issue of The Lifeboat. Full accounts of the other three services appear elsewhere in this issue.) The PRESIDENT : I will now call upon Mr. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to move the first resolution.

The Right Hon. A. V. Alexander, M.P.

The Rt. Hon. A. V. ALEXANDER, M.P. (First Lord of the Admiralty): Your Royal High- nesses, my Lord Mayor, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have to move :— " That this Meeting, fully recognising the important services 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 Cox- swains and Crews of the Institution's Life- boats, and gratefully to acknowledge the valuable help rendered to the cause by the Local Committees, Honorary Secretaries and Honorary Treasurers." It is a great privilege to be allowed this opportunity of paying in this public way a tribute to those who have given so much to the great success of the Institution under whose auspices we are met this afternoon. I have very early recollections of a little education in the work of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, as an elementary Board School pupil—the only education I ever got; for part of it was in the work of the Life-boat Institution, and Life-boat Saturday was one of the great events in my annual year whilst at school. I remember, too, that one of the first songs that I was ever taught to sing the chorus of was about Grace Darling, and it seemed in those days in the West Country that one of the greatest things that we had to learn was the traditional courage, chivalry and humanity of our countrymen, who were trained to believe that the sea was our life, that the sea was our strength, and that on the sea we obtained our livelihood. (Applause.) There has always been, of course, a great bond of sympathy between the various sections of our maritime population—a great bond of sympathy between the Royal Navy (over which I have to try to preside for the time being), the Mercantile Marine, and great Institutions like the National Life-boat Institution; and it is perhaps because all sections of this great maritime nation actually engaged in moving upon the seas are filled with the same spirit of service to those who are in need. Even in the instructions to the Royal Navy in the King's Regulations we do not forget them : " All officers of His Majesty's ships are to afford every possible aid to vessels in danger, distress or in want of casual assist- ance and in saving life " ; and you have no doubt seen in the last few months that the members of the Royal Navy have been thus engaged. The example of the crew of H.M.S. Sitffolk in rescuing the crew of the Hedrik in very dangerous Eastern waters was one ; the great services of the commanding officer and crew of the ship Veronica during the New Zealand earthquake was another. (Loud applause.) And I mention this bond of sympathy, and instance those examples of services by the Royal Navy in rescuing life, for this reason; that we are here to-day to honour Coxswains and Crews who are not under regular obligatory service; they are giving voluntary service.

(Applause.) We in the Admiralty do not for one moment detract from the great examples of courage and humanity given by the members of the regular crews of the Navy and Mercantile Marine, but we take off our hats, if I may use the phrase, to those who, without compulsion, by voluntary service, show all those qualities of courage and of chivalry in time of peace, and purely for the sake of brotherhood and saving humanity, which sometimes we only look to see exposed to our view when actually engaged in belligerent warfare. (Applause.) Perhaps in this non-political atmosphere, in this very great national Institution, you will permit me at least as a working-class repre- sentative a little pride in the fact that the men whom we come to honour to-day are what I might call, and what you have seen for yourselves to be, fine examples of working- class gentlemen. (Loud applause.) They represent to us not merely those noble acts which have been detailed to us, and which have happened in the last few months ; they represent to us a history of the Life-boat Institution of this country which is beyond compare. (Applause.) I do not need to say more about that this afternoon except this: While we are proud that this Life-boat Institution was the pioneer of Life-boat Services in any country ; we are also glad that it has now pioneered the inter- national meetings, which we hope will lead to a still further development of world service in Life-boat work. The conference which was initiated in the centenary year of 1924, and which was held in London, at which nine nationalities were represented, was succeeded by the Conference of 1928, at which seventeen nationalities were represented, and we hope that at the Conference which will take place in 1932 at Amsterdam no country in the world with a coastline on which it is possible to prevent human life being lost will be un- represented. (Applause.) We are greatly honoured by the presence of His Royal Highness in the Chair to-day, and of Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise.

(Loud applause.) Perhaps as a Minister of a Government which you do not all appreciate, I might be allowed to say that the thing which endears them to us all, m all parties in the country, is that they are pre-eminently great public servants. (Loud applause.) I know that they will forgive me if I say that we are also honoured by the presence to-day of gallant Coxswains and members of Crews who are also great public servants. (Loud ap- plause.) I am therefore glad to have the opportunity of moving this resolution in appreciation of their service, and to include in that resolution, as I am sure you would desire this meeting to do, those who help on the shore, about whom we heard just now—who help to get the Life-boats off in most difficult circumstances ; those who do the work of Secretary and Treasurer, and the local com- mittee work in every branch of the Institution in the country; and I am perfectly certain that this meeting will carry the resolution which I now have the honour to move, with acclamation. (Loud applause.) The PRESIDENT : I now call on the Bishop of Durham to second the resolution.

The Bishop of Durham.

The BISHOP OF DURHAM (the Rt. Rev. HERBERT HBNSLEY HENSON, D.D.): Your Royal Highnesses, my Lord Mayor, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, of all the many objects of benevolence which from time to time claim the support of good citizens, I think it can hardly be disputed that the Royal National Life-boat Institution holds a kind of primacy ; for not only is the direct object which it is organised to serve one which needs no possible defence, but the necessity of this Institution is quite undoubted. Moreover, there is no object which needs so little the arts of the advocate and the orator to commend it to the enthusiastic acceptance of English people.

By a three-fold title it holds us. We are insular, and, if we are to hold communication with the rest of the world, it must be (saving always your Royal Highness's correction) by the sea rather than by the air. (Laughter.) We are mercantile, and we cannot get to and fro on our legitimate business without traversing the high seas. We are Imperial, and we cannot hold the links of our far-flung Empire without the mastery of the seas.

(Applause.) There are several special reasons why I, as Bishop of Durham, might claim a particular and personal interest in this Institution ; for if you go back to the beginnings of this great work you will find that it was closely linked with the Diocese of Durham. It was in 1786 that for the first time the experiment was made of a Life-boat Station at Bamburgh, on the coast of Northumberland, which was provided, if you please, by funds from a benefaction of a Bishop of Durham, Lord Crewe, and was set up at the instance of an excellent Durham clergyman, the Archdeacon of that district; and in 1789—a memorable year—the first permanent Life-boat Station wag set up at Tynemouth, in my Diocese.

North-eastern England has the honour of con- tributing to the education of the First Lord of the Admiralty, for it was from that district that Grace Darling, the patron saint of life- saving at sea, came, and her great heroic achievement in the year 1838 was transacted on sacred soil, the Fame Islands, where the first of all the long series of Bishops of whom I am the last, and the least, held their place, St.

Aidan and St. Cuthbert. Grace Darling had to learn that fame is not without its shadow, for we are told that applications for locks of hair came in such numbers that Grace was menaced with baldness. (Laughter.) Nor, indeed, even at that early stage, was the com- mercial value of feminine achievement wholly unperceived, for we are told that she was repeatedly appealed to by the proprietor of Batty's Circus to join his troupe and be exhibited to the admiration of the multitude ; but Grace had the good sense to decline all these offers, and she died in the odour of sanctity in her native island.

Moreover, your Royal Highness, it is my singular privilege as Bishop of Durham to preside over a Diocese which includes amongst its greater industries those two great employ- ments, seafaring and coal-mining, which I do think exhibit more conspicuously than any other the valorous spirit of man in conflict with the mighty and unmanageable forces of nature. (Applause.) The achievements of men, coal-miners and seafaring men—their achievements in shipwreck and in explosions in the mines—contribute to the spiritual assets of the human race ; and I observed with great pride just now that the first of those admirable men who came to receive from the hands of your Royal Highness a Medal comes from my Diocese, from Hartlepool. I note also that your Royal Highness will presently give a Gold Badge for distinguished service in raising funds to a lady from my Diocese, Polly Donkin, a fishwife of Cullercoats, whose achievements in " raising the wind " have been outstanding. (Applause.) But I must not continue with my local claims, otherwise I should keep you too long.

This resolution expresses our hearty appreci- ation of the gallantry of the Coxswains and Crews of the Life-boats. Consider for a moment what that service is. It is not merely the direct work of life-saving, so many men rescued from imminent death in circumstances the most appalling conceivable ; but behind each of those rescues there is that great margin of anxiety relieved and domestic tragedy averted which the saving of the life of a breadwinner in a humble home inevitably means. But these men did much more than do that positive and direct work. The actual saving of so many lives is much, but there is more : they proved the potential heroism of peace, a lesson which it is highly important that the communities of the civilised world should learn. I sometimes think that the difference between peace and war in this respect lies here : that while peace parades its seamy side, war parades its heroic side. And here I would commend to all who advocate peace and a juster measure of the false glitter of war, the wonderful passage in Dr. Johnson's writings published in the year 1771, when he drew just that particular contrast which I am suggesting to you now, between the external glitter of war and the sordid, squalid back- ground which lies behind it. But when we come to peace, what do we see ? We see all men, too often, alas, exhibiting the most vulgar, the most greedy, the most contentious aspect of their character ; and it is sometimes hard for an observer of this squalid continuing conflict of men and classes and interests in society to escape a very low view of human nature, and even to escape sinking into the prison of unhappiness and cynicism.

And then we come to see, and our sailors help us to see, that all this fabric of society, in spite of its meanness, is shot through and through with heroism, which again and again leaps up into prominence and commands attention. The voluntary service of these men and women who launch and man the Life- boats restores our self-respect and rebuilds again the fabric of our faith in human nature.

(Applause.) And will you allow me to say this : I think this kind of achievement, this kind of work, which the Life-boat Institution is carrying out, is more conspicuously than anything else an evidence of the genuine influence of Christianity on national life. Human need is wide as humanity, and a man or a woman need not be a Christian in order to appreciate it and to respond to it, but it is incontrovertible that it is only in those societies which have been trained and educated by the Christian religion that these great efforts of benevolence and help have come to have the prominence which, thank God, they have among us. I am some- times disposed to think, when I review the history of the Church of Christ, so chequered, so scandal-ridden in many ways, so enigmatic and paradoxical, that all these things are out- weighed by the unfailing succession of kind and generous efforts which have marked its course through history, and I can imagine the Eternal Judge addressing to the Christian society in the great day of reckoning such words as He addressed to the undone and outcast woman : " Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much." One word more. Our Life-boats are monuments. As you go round the coast from place to place, in watering-places, where the tired multitudes of our city dwellers flock in order to recover some physical energy for the work which they must carry on year in and year out, at every conspicuous point on the coast there is the Life-boat, conspicuous by its place, by its form, above all, by its suggestion.

It is a monument. We are an ancient people ; we have lived through many centuries, and every century has contributed to our present position monuments of its distinctive life and achievement. Those monuments are the very citadels and treasuries of the national spirit.

Here is a monument of another kind. It symbolises and expresses not the heroism and achievements of the past, but the needs and efforts of the present. It cries its challenge to the generations as they pass : " Oh ! children of men, so frail, so fleeting, whose lives are shadowed by such dark potencies of ill, why waste your time in conflict and disputing, when the moral of your own woes is this : Help one another!" And the Life-boat calls that message most persuasively.

I must not dwell on the value of this great work for holding the nations together. Think of it! What is it that holds the nations together in spite of the dividing forces—what but the consciousness of common needs and the memory of common help ? And this Institu- tion does more than any other to do that.

Without further prelude, your Royal Highness, I beg to second the Resolution. (Loud (The Resolution was carried.) Presentations to Honorary Life-Governors.

The President then made presentations to honorary workers for long and distinguished service, the Secretary giving particulars in each case of the work for which the award was made, as follows :— The SECRETARY : An Honorary Life- Governorship is the highest honour which the Institution can confer on its honorary workers, and is given only for long and distinguished service as a Station Honorary Secretary or in furthering its appeals for financial support. A copy of the Vote, inscribed on Vellum, and signed by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, as President of the Institution, is presented to each Honorary Life-Governor.

Five honorary workers have been appointed Honorary Life-Governors, and two are present this afternoon to receive their awards :— DERBY (DERBYSHIRE).

LADY ANN,* J.P., appointed an Honorary Life-Governor in recognition of her distin- guished services as President of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild in Derby, and as a Life-boat worker for nearly forty years.

TEIGNMOUTH (DEVONSHIRE).

Mr. W. J. BURDEN, appointed an Honorary Life-Governor in recognition of his distin- guished services as Honorary Secretary of the Teignmouth Station Branch for upwards of forty-five years. Mr. Burden already holds the Silver Medal of the Institution for gallantry in rescuing life from shipwreck.

Presentation of Gold Brooches and Pendants.

The SECRETARY : The Gold Brooch or Pendant also is awarded only to Honorary Workers who have given distinguished service.

Since the last Annual Meeting twenty-one have been awarded, and the following are present this afternoon to receive their awards : ABERDOVEY (MERIONETHSHIRE).

Captain J. WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., in recognition of his long and valuable co- operation as Honorary Secretary of the Branch. Fifty years ago Captain Williams was a member of the Crew of the Aberdovey Life-boat.

BUDE (CORNWALL).

Admiral STUART NICHOLSON, C.B., M.V.O., D.L., in recognition of his long and valuable co-operation as Honorary Secretary of the Branch.

CULLERCOATS (NORTHUMBERLAND).

Mrs. POLLY DONKIN, in recognition of her valuable help in personally collecting £272 out of a total of £1,055 collected by the Fishwives of Cullercoats during the past nine years, at the summer exercise of the Life-boat.

DUNBAR AND SKATERAW ( HADDINGTONSHIRE) .

Mr. WILLIAM BERTRAM, J.P., in recognition of his valuable co-operation as Honorary Secretary of the Dunbar and Skateraw Station Branches for the past thirty-four years.

EASTBOURNE (SUSSEX).

Mrs. H. G. BRIGGS, in recognition of her long and valuable co-operation with the Ladies' Life-boat Guild at Eastbourne, and particu- larly in connexion with the organisation of Life-boat Day.

* Lady Ann was appointed a Life-Governor in 1924, but owing to ill-health no formal presentation had previously been made. The four other Honorary Life-Governors have been appointed since the last Annual Meeting.

ISLE Of WIGHT.

The Hon. MABEL GOUGH-CALTHORPE, Honorary Secretary of the Isle of Wight Ladies' Life-boat Guild, in recognition of her valuable co-operation as Honorary Organiser of the " All Island " Fete, 1930.

LAKE DISTRICT (WESTMORLAND).

Miss STELLA HAMILTON, in recognition of valuable co-operation in raising funds for over thirty-five years.

LEICESTER (LEICESTERSHIRE).

Mrs. MOREY, in recognition of her long and valuable co-operation in raising funds.

LEWES (Sussex).

Mr. A. J. R. URIDGE, in recognition of his long and valuable co-operation as Honorary Secretary of the Branch.

MANCHESTER (LANCASHIRE).

Mrs. BRONNERT, in recognition of her long and valuable co-operation in raising funds at Didsbury.

NEWPORT (MONMOUTHSHIRE).

Mr. A. J. PHILLIPS, in recognition of his valuable co-operation first as Secretary, and then as Chairman of the Branch, for upwards of forty years. I deeply regret to say that eighteen months ago Mr. Phillips lost his sight.

OLDHAM (LANCASHIRE).

Mr. EDWARD DEAN, in recognition of his long and valuable co-operation as Honorary Secretary of the Branch.

READING (BERKSHIRE).

Mr. G. BURTON FRASER, in recognition of his long and valuable co-operation as Honorary Secretary of the Branch.

ST. IVES (HUNTINGDON).

Miss M. KNIGHTS, in recognition of her long and valuable co-operation as Honorary Secretary of the Branch.

VENTNOR (ISLE OF WIGHT).

Mrs. SAUNDERS, in recognition of her long and valuable co-operation as Honorary Secretary of the Branch.

The PRESIDENT : I now call upon Sir Malcolm Campbell to move the next Resolu- tion.

Sir Malcolm Campbell.

Captain SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL : Your Royal Highnesses, my Lord Mayor, Your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to move the following Resolution :— " That this Meeting desires to record its sense of the deep obligation of the Institu- tion to the Ladies' Life-boat Guild and its many hundreds of voluntary workers for the Life-boat cause, and its conviction of the increasing importance of the part which the Guild is destined to play in educating public opinion with regard to the value of the Life-boat Service, and in raising funds therefor." It might, perhaps, seem somewhat strange to you that I should have been invited to move this Resolution asking you to express your gratitude to the ladies who have helped so magnificently in this great Service of saving life ; for my name, I know, is more commonly associated with activities which are popularly supposed to endanger life rather than to save it. I do not know what was in the minds of the Committee of Management of the Institu- tion when they invited me to move this Resolution ; perhaps they were working by the law of contrast; but we who delight in speed are extremely careful about human lives, both our own and those of other people. There is, therefore, really nothing inconsistent in my speaking in support of such a Resolution as this, any more than in the fact that I happen to be a member of the Road Fellowship League.

That League is a section of the National Safety First Association, and I understand that this Institution is represented on the Association's Council. It seems to me very appropriate that this Meeting should be held during " Safety First Week." Many of us are engaged on this problem of doing all that we can to make transport, on which our civilisa- tion so greatly depends, safer than it is, and at the same time in speeding it up, no matter whether it be by land, by sea or by air. As speed increases, so does it become all the more necessary for us to do all that is possible to reduce the number of accidents which occur and to minimise the loss of life resulting there- from. This Institution has been carrying on that fight, with splendid success, for over one hundred years. It has carried on that fight on the greatest road of our Empire, namely, the sea; and I would like to remind you of one thing which we ought never to forget: When we all join together to make our roads safer, it is for our own safety as well as for the safety of others, but when these magnificent fellows who man the boats of the Royal National Life-boat Institution set out in all weathers, undeterred by the appalling danger of their task of saving life at sea, they are unable to apply the " Safety First " principle to themselves at all. (Applause.) This In- stitution has also carried out wonderful research work in the direction of applying the latest inventions of mechanical science to its own special duty.

I fear, however, that I am getting away from the main point of my Speech, which is really to thank the ladies and to acknowledge the great debt which the Life-boat Service owes to them. Feats of courage, endurance and daring in women are now taken almost as much for granted as they have been in men during the past. What women undertake now in the way of dangerous adventure would have been thought impossible a few years ago ; but though we recognise and applaud this new spirit of adventure in women, we do not allow it to make us forget all that women have long done and still do by their inspiration, en thusiasm and self-sacrifice for such great causes as the Royal National Life-boat Institu tiou. Here, surely, is a cause which is truly national, since it asks for the best that both the women and the men of this nation can give us. We have already in another Resolution thanked the men, and I now ask you to thank all those women, living inland and on the coast, who by their devotion to it have made the Life-boat cause their own. (Loud ap- plause.) The PRESIDENT : I call on the Master of Sempill to second the Resolution.

Colonel the Master of Sempill.

Colonel the MASTER OF SEMPILL : Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, my Lord Mayor, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have been given an utterly impossible task— that of following Sir Malcolm Campbell. As you know, there is only one Blue Bird in the world capable of a speed of 250 miles an hour, and that belongs to Sir Malcolm Campbell, so how can one possibly follow him ? If one wanted to follow Sir Malcolm Campbell, the only thing to do would be to imitate the very practical example set by His Royal Highness the President and take to the air ; that would be the only way to catch him.

When His Royal Highness presided at the first meeting of the General Council of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild some years ago, he said: " I place the Life-boat Cause in your hands, confident that it will be as safe with you as the Life-boat itself is safe in the hands of our gallant Crews." His Royal Highness's trust has been more than amply repaid by the magnificent work that has been done by the Ladies' Life-boat Guild. When we consider that on Flag Days and on other similar occasions over two-thirds of the money collected is collected by the ladies, we can realise the force of that argument.

The women who serve the Institution deserve our profound gratitude, and all the assistance we can give them in this great work.

Not only do they devote their time to this service, but many of them, as you know, may, as Life-boat launchers, be called out in the middle of the night to help with the launch of the boat, which entails hours of hard labour and the certainty of a complete wetting. I therefore cordially second the Resolution so ably proposed by Sir Malcolm Campbell, and ask you to show your great appreciation of the work of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, so ably led by Her Royal Highness Princess Louise, and of all those who have so gallantly followed her. (Loud applause.) (The Resolution was carried.) Sir Godfrey Baring.

Sir GODFREY BARING, Bt. (Chairman of the Committee of Management): Your Royal Highnesses, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to move : " That the hearty and respectful thanks of this Meeting be given to His Royal High- ness the Prince of Wales, K.G., for presiding over this, the Hundred and Seventh Annual General Meeting of the Royal National Life- boat Institution." His Royal Highness said to me just now that he would like this Resolution cut out altogether, but I have absolutely, though, I hope, respectfully, disregarded those wishes; but he has expressed a wish that I should be exceedingly short. That is a very great disappointment to me, but, I expect, a great relief to the audience, because I had prepared a speech which would have occupied about twenty minutes, tracing the history of the Institution from its earliest years and describ- ing the various Presidents who have presided over our deliberations, and also it contained four or five jokes which I had conned for some time, and which were really very good.

(Laughter.) At any rate, Ladies and Gentlemen, we cannot possibly separate without expressing our deep, our abiding, and our respectful gratitude to our President for the inestimable services which he has rendered to us for eleven years. (Applause.) There has never been anything which we have asked His Royal Highness to do that he has not done, and what he has done for the Life-boat Service really beggars description. Every one of us who is interested in the Life-boat cause is deeply grateful to His Royal Highness, and we shall never forget the wonderful services that he has rendered. I am sure you will pass this vote of thanks with the utmost enthusiasm and the utmost unanimity. (Loud applause.) The Hon. GEORGE COLVILLE (Deputy Chair- man) : Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excel- lencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have all read in the paper this morning of His Royal Highness's visit to Liverpool yesterday, and the speech which he made counselling publicity. What greater publicity could we possibly have than his presence here in our chair to-day ? We welcome him, we thank him for this publicity, and we thank him for his presence. I have 'much pleasure in seconding the resolution. (Loud applause.) Sir GODFREY BARING : Ladies and Gentle- men, let us carry that vote with three cheers for the Prince of Wales.

(The Resolution was carried with acclamation.) (The Meeting then terminated.) Entertainment of Medallists.

After the Meeting the Medallists visited the House of Commons, where they were received by Admiral T. P. H. Beamish, C.B., M.P., a member of the Committee of Management, and in the evening they were the guests of Sir Oswald Stoll at the Alhambra..