THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 114 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 62 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to May 31st, 1933 63,299 Annual Meeting.

THE hundred and ninth annual meet- ing of the governors of the Institution was held at the Mansion House, at 3 p.m., on Friday, 21st April.

The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of London (Sir Percy Walter Greenaway) presided, supported by the Lady Mayoress, vice-presidents of the Insti- tution and members of the committee of management.

The speakers were Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the committee of management, Sir Percy Mackinnon, chairman of Lloyd's, Mr. Robert Boothby, M.P., Mrs. Astley Roberts, president of the Eastbourne Ladies' Life-boat Guild, Mr. Walter Riggs, a member of the committee of manage- ment and honorary secretary of the Aldeburgh life-boat station, and the Hon. George Colville, deputy-chairman of the committee of management.

The Lord Mayor presented medals and other awards for gallantry, and the Lady Mayoress awards to honorary workers for distinguished services.

Among those who accepted the invitation of the committee of manage- ment were representatives of six foreign countries: His Excellency the Minister of the Netherlands, the counsellors of the French, German and Belgian embassies and of the Norwegian lega- tion, and the Swedish naval attache.

The mayors and mayoresses of the following boroughs also accepted the invitation: Baling, Highgate, Hamp- stead, Stepney, Barnes, Holborn, Chel- sea, Fulham, Walthamstow, Lambeth, Woolwich, St. Pancras, Greenwich, Hammersmith, Hendon, Leyton, East Ham, Islington, Bermondsey, St.

Albans, Margate and Folkestone.

Among others who accepted the invitation were: The Duchess of Suther- land, president of the Ladies' Life- boat Guild, the Lady Florence Pery, honorary secretary of the guild, the Viscountess Astor, M.P., and repre- sentatives of King George's Fund for Sailors, Missions to Seamen, the Im- perial Merchant Service Guild, Green- wich Hospital for Seamen, and the Royal Alfred Aged Merchant Seamen's Institution.

The Lord Mayor.

THE CHAIRMAN : My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen : First of all, on behalf of the Lady Mayoress and myself, I should like to bid you all a very hearty welcome to the Mansion House.

I should like just to read you a little of the early and late history of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, to show its association with the City of London.

The first life-boat station in the British Isles was established at Tynemouth. The appeal which led to the founding of the Royal National Life-boat Institution was made from the Isle of Man, but the meeting at which the Institution was actually founded was held in the City of London, on the 4th March, 1824, at the City of London Tavern. It was summoned by Mr. Thomas Wilson, a London merchant, and a Member of Parliament for the City, and Mr. Wilson was the chairman of the committee of management of the Institution for its first twenty-eight years, until his death in 1852, at the age of eighty- five.

The last occasion on which the annual meeting of the Institution was held in the City was in 1924—the centenary meeting.

It was held on March 4th, the Institution's birthday, and the Lord Mayor presided.

The Prince of Wales presented the awards, and the Archbishop of Canterbury moved the principal resolution, as his predecessor had done at the first meeting just a hundred years before.

The close association of the City of London with the life-boat service, begun at that first meeting, has continued to the present. The City has its own branch of the Institution.

Year after year, until 1931, it stood at the head of the branches. In that year and in the following year the Glasgow branch contributed more than the City, but last year, I am glad to say, the City again returned to the head of the list, contributing no less a sum than £6,241. (Applause).

Among the names in the first list of sub- scribers in 1825 appears " Lloyd's Committee •—£200." That generous support was con- tinued year by year, and last year Lloyd's contributed £1,408. (Applause.) The inter- est of Lloyd's in the life-boat service had begun over twenty years before the Insti- tution itself was founded. Lloyd's voted no less than £2,000 in 1802 for the building and equipping of life-boats, and when the Institution was founded there were already thirty-nine on our coasts, of which twenty-six had been provided by Lloyd's. Before 1824 Lloyd's was virtually the Institution.

This was commemorated last year by giving the name of Lloyd's to a motor life-boat built for a new station at Barra Island in the Hebrides. The annual contributions received from Lloyd's in future will be allocated to maintaining this life-boat, and to replacing her, so that there will always be a life- boat in the fleet bearing the name of Lloyd's.

I am very pleased to see here to-day Sir Percy Mackinnon, the chairman of Lloyd's.

(Applause).

One of the chief features of the work of the life-boat service during 1932 was the number of lives rescued from foreign vessels. Life- boats rendered services to fifteen foreign vessels in distress, belonging to nine different countries, and rescued from them 111 lives, well over a quarter of the total of 395 lives rescued round our coasts. The nine countries were France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Panama. Early this year a service was rendered to a Greek vessel. Representatives from six of these ten countries are present at this meeting.

I am very happy to welcome to the Mansion House to-day the mayors of the metropolitan boroughs and also the mayors of Margate and Folkestone; men and women from Cromer in Norfolk, Plymouth in Devon, Dungeness in Kent, Boulmer in Northumber- land, and Peterhead in Aberdeen, who are present to receive awards for gallantry in saving life (Applause); and honorary workers of the Institution from Chelsea, Southampton, Bembridge (Isle of Wight), Birmingham, Folkestone and Perth, who are present to receive awards for distinguished services in raising the Institution's funds. (Applause.) Such a meeting as this, held in the Mansion House and so well attended, shows the long, close and generous association between London and the life-boat service ; tfie share which every part of the British Isles, inland as well as on the coast, takes in the work of the service; and the recognition by all maritime countries of the value of the British life-boats as a great international service—a service existing for the succour of seafarers of all nations, and knowing no frontiers. (Applause.) I read to-day in the News-Chronicle a very interesting tale of the wreck of the Forest Hall, which I will read to you ; I think you will be interested to hear it. To sum it up : It was in January, 1899 ; a fierce gale was raging on the Devon coast, and a Liverpool steamer, the Forest Hall, was rudderless and driving on to the coast near Lynmouth. It was impossible to launch the Lynmouth life-boat, for the front had four feet of water over it, and with a fierce wind off the sea she would have been smashed to pieces. The life-boat might be launched if it were taken overland to Porlock. I do not know whether any of you ladies and gentlemen know the district, but if you do you will realize what a tremendous task this was. In an eighty- mile-an-hour gale the life-boat was put on a low truck, taken up the long and steep Countisbury Hill by sixteen farm horses helped by all the village men and women, and taken down Porlock Hill, with its fear- some gradient, to Porlock, where she was successfully launched after her thrilling land adventure. (Applause).

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt.

SIR GODFREY BARING: My Lord Mayor, your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen : The report for the last year of the work of the Royal National Life-boat Institution is in the hands of the governors, and in that report you will find a full and, I hope, an accurate account of our activities during the last year. There are, therefore, very few remarks with which I need trouble the meeting of the governors this afternoon.

With regard to the technical side of our work, I should like to say that our technical advisers are busy at the present moment experimenting in order to see if heavy-oilengines can be adapted to be placed in our larger life-boats. They are also making experiments in order to secure that we shall have a class, which we hope will be very useful to us, of specially light motor boats which we shall be able to launch in places where, up to now, we have only been able to launch pulling and sailing boats. There are many places on our coasts where we should like to have motor boats, but where the difficulties of launching heavy motor boats have up to now precluded us from being able to use motor power. With this new class we hope we shall be able to provide these places with motor life-boats.

Then, my Lord Mayor, with regard to finance, I am sorry to say that our ordinary income does show, as one would expect, a diminution. It is a decrease, I think, of about ten per cent, but it is a decrease which one would have expected in these difficult times. Our legacies (which is a gloomy subject) keep up wonderfully well, but I would remind the governors that about half of the legacies are allocated to the provision of boats in places specified by the donors, so that only half of our legacies can be applied to the ordinary services of the Institution.

Our organization, my Lord Mayor, I think, was never in a sounder condition. We have 1,100 branches all over the country. Those branches are manned by devoted workers, and they have done splendid work during the last year. Our subscriptions, to which we attach very great importance, have kept up extremely well, considering the bad times, but the committee of management do hope that our workers will attach great importance to securing as many annual subscriptions as they possibly can, for we find that if ladies or gentlemen are kind enough to subscribe even five shillings or half a crown a year to our funds, from that moment they take almost a proprietary interest in the work of the Institution. (Applause.) I come now to a very important source of our revenue—that is, flag days. We have held during the past year, owing to the keenness of our workers, 713 flag days, and those flag days have produced nearly £39,090. There are some people who are so curiously constituted as not to approve of flag days. I am an enthusiastic supporter of them. I never at any place on any occasion where one is being held neglect to buy a flag.

I very often do not know for what cause it is being sold, but I, nevertheless, buy one, and I am sure that flag days are the only way of securing the support of all classes of the community. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the ladies who work so untiringly for us in organizing these days. Two-thirds of our revenue is due to the activities, devotion and help of our lady workers. It seems to me that the only thing the men have to do on a flag day is to count the money at the end of the day, and say that, on the whole, the results are not quite so good as last year.

(Laughter.) We are going to have a flag day in London on Tuesday, the 23rd of May. I do invite those who take an interest in our cause to help on that day by every means at their command. Our results of flag days in London have perhaps been a little dis- appointing in the past, not through any lack of interest on the part of the public in our cause, but simply and solely because we cannot secure sufficient sellers to make the day a success. I hope that if any ladies or gentlemen are inspired and encouraged by the speeches this afternoon, and if they have a few hours to spare on the 23rd of May, they will kindly give their names to the organizing secretary for Greater London, who will be at the door. He will be most grateful for any promise of help.

I hope I may be allowed to take this opportunity of offering my most sincere thanks and, I am sure I may add, the thanks of the governors, to my colleagues on the committee of management for the splendid work which they have done during the past year, and for their regularity of attendance at the meetings. I wonder if the governors realize that our committees and sub-com- mittees meet on the average more than once a week throughout the year. There is a further matter for which the governors ought to be thankful to the committee of manage- ment—that is, that the members are always ready, sometimes at great personal incon- venience, to go to all parts of the country to make speeches and to investigate life-boat problems on behalf of the Institution. • It is a commonplace to say that we are living in difficult and anxious tunes, times which are really trying for all those who control and take part in the control of charities. We are faced with the burden of tremendous taxation, which we may hope will be slightly relieved on Tuesday next, and we are passing through a period of unexampled trade depression. Therefore, this task which confronts those who control and serve national charities is a task of unexampled complexity and of unexampled difficulty. But the committee of manage- ment of the Institution face the future with undiminished confidence. For 109 years now the generosity of the British public has never failed the life-boat service. We believe it will not fail us in the future. We believe that the British public are determined to see, in the years that are to come, that our life-boatmen are supplied with the best boats and the most efficient equipment that science can devise and that money can buy, in order that our men may, in the sacred cause of humanity and in saving life at sea, display the hjghest and noblest characteristics of our race—courage, endurance and self-sacrifice.

(Applause.) Election of the Committee of Management.

Sir Godfrey Baring read the following list of those nominated, who were declared duly elected.

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.

The Lord Southborough.

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

Seely.

The Right Hon. Walter Runciman, M.P.

The Hon. George Colville.

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

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt.

Sir John G. Cumming.

Mr. Noel E. Peck.

Miss Alice Marshall.

Mr. Leonard Gow.

Treasurer: The Earl of Harrowby.

Other Members of the Committee of Manage- ment: Mr. James Bryce Allan.

Mr. Charles G. Ammon.

Mr. Ernest Armstrong.

Mr. H. Arthur Baker.

Rear-Admiral T. P. H. Beamish.

Lieut.-Colonel J. Benskin.

Mr. Frederick Cavendish Bentinck.

The Earl of Brecknock.

Professor John Cameron.

Major Sir Maurice Cameron.

Rear-Admiral Gordon Campbell, M.P.

Captain Charles J. P. Cave.

Colonel Lord William Cecil.

Commander the Hon. A. D. Cochrane, M.P.

Lieut.-Colonel Sir John Collie.

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.

Lieut.-Commander R. Fletcher, R.N.

Mr. George G. Fortescue.

Mr. K. Lee Guinness.

Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey.

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

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.

Mr. Walter Riggs.

The Right Hon. F. O. Roberts.

Colonel the Hon. Harold Robson.

Colonel the Master of Sempill.

Colonel R. F. A. Sloane-Stanley.

Captain A. Granville Soames.

Commander Henry Strong, R.N.R.

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

General Six Reginald Wingate, Bt., and ex offlcio: 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.

The Deputy Master, Hon. Company of Master Mariners.

Auditors: Messrs. Price, Waterhouse & Co.

Presentation of Medals and other Awards for Gallantry.

The secretary read the accounts of the services, and the medals and other awards were presented by the Lord Mayor, as follows :— To COXSWAIN HENRY BLOGO, of Cromer, Norfolk, the silver medal for the rescue on 14th October, 1932, of thirty men from the Italian steamer Monte Nevoso. Coxswain Blogg already holds the Institution's gold medal, with a second-service clasp.

To COXSWAIN JOHN STBACHAN, of Peter- head, Aberdeenshire, the silver medal for the rescue on 18th January, 1933, of nine men from the trawler Struan, of Aberdeen.

To the motor mechanic, DAVID WISEMAN, the bronze medal for the same service.

To COXSWAIN BARTHOLOMEW STANTON, of Boulmer, Northumberland, the bronze medal for the rescue on 21st December, 1932, of three men from the trawler Guillemot, of Grimsby.

To COXSWAIN JAMES ROACH, of Plymouth, Devon, the thanks of the Institution in- scribed on vellum for the rescue on 27th October, 1932, of the crew of three men of the ketch Millom Castle, of Plymouth.

To COXSWAIN DOUGLAS OILLEH, of Dunge- ness, Kent, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum for the rescue on 8th October, 1932, of the three men of the crew of the barge Shamrock, of London. Coxswain Oilier already holds the bronze medal of the Institution.

To MRS. OILLER and MRS. BRIGNALL, representing the women of Dungeness, Kent, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum for their gallant services on this and other occasions in helping to launch the life-boat.

(Full accounts of these services appeared in previous issues of The Life-boat.) Sir Percy Mackinnon.

SIR PERCY MACKINNON : My Lord Mayor, Lady Mayoress, Ladies and Gentlemen: My Lord Mayor has told you of the very early associations of the Corporation of Lloyd's with the life-boat service of this country.

It therefore gives me very much pleasure, as chairman of Lloyd's, to take part in this meeting this afternoon. Sir Godfrey Baring has told us something of the progressive policy of the Institution and the up-to-date- ness of the construction of the modern life- boat. This fact was very much impressed upon me last summer at the launch of the new Lloyd's life-boat. Every detail of her construction had been thought out with such thoroughness that I felt that the boat was just as perfect as human ingenuity can make it. I felt, too, that the new life-boat Lloyd's was capable of doing all the work that could be expected of her in the very dangerous station where she is now situated. But life-boats would be quite useless unless the bravery and skill of the life-boatmen were available. (Applause.)rt It is my duty to-day to pay tribute to the wonderful work of the life-boatmen, and to ask you to pass a resolution of gratitude to them for what they have done during the past year.

(Applause.) Happily, during the period under review, no life-boatman has been called upon to sacrifice his life in the service of the Institution, although 395 people were rescued from wrecks, and it is calculated that 17,000 life-boatmen were afloat during the year, and in many cases under the very worst conditions of weather. Could there be a finer tribute to the skill of those men, the quality of the life-boats, and the organization of the Institution ? (Applause.} But I would remind you that there is not always immunity from loss of life. Since 1850 the Institution's life-boats have saved over 41,000 people, but in that period no fewer than 250 life-boatmen have laid down their lives in this noble service ; that is to say, that a life-boatman has lost his life for every 188 lives saved. Great as has been the bravery of those men in the past, I believe that there is no lessening of the willingness of the life-boatmen of the present day to do their share in the magnificent acts of heroism which are so characteristic of the life-boat service. (Applause.) I would remind you, too, that, apart from the life-boatmen themselves, it is evident that a great organization such as this could not be carried on successfully without the aid of executive officers. To these also we owe a deep debt of gratitude. Their responsibility is very great. Whenever a distress message is received the honorary secretary of the life-boat station has to decide whether his particular life-boat is best placed for the required service and whether he shall order it to be launched for the rescue of the shipwrecked crew. In spite of that responsibility, however, the Institution has no difficulty in finding men ready to undertake the task. They are of all classes- retired officers of the Army and Navy, shop- keepers, doctors, and clergymen of all denominations, and, added to the duties they perform in an executive way, many of them often help to man the life-boats.

(Applause.) In view of what I have told you, I am perfectly sure that you would wish to join with me in thanking them for the splendid help that they have given to the work of the Institution in the past year. I have, there- fore, very great pleasure in moving the following resolution : " That this meeting, fully recognizing 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 coxswains 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." (Applause.) Mr. Robert Boothby, M.P.

Mr. Robert BOOTHBY, M.P.: My Lord Mayor, my Lady Mayoress, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen : I feel it a very great honour to have been asked to second this resolution, and I would like, if I might, to congratulate the Institution upon the 1932 report. Three hundred and thirty- seven launches and 395 lives saved in one year is a magnificent record. I think we must all agree to that; and already this year, in 1933, another 122 lives have been saved from the sea. (Applause.) I am naturally very pleased that of the outstanding services last year two should have been performed by Scottish life-boats, and I am still more pleased and proud'that two men from my own constituency, two Peterhead men, Coxswain Strachan and Motor-mechanic Wiseman, should be present —men who performed that great epic of the seas and that magnificent service to an account of which we listened a few minutes ago. But, ladies and gentlemen, I hasten to say that the life-boat service is no mere national affair. It is manned so far as Great Britain is concerned by the best men in all the four kingdoms. Englishmen, Scotsmen, Irishmen, Welshmen, find it easy enough to sink their differences and work together for such a cause. As a humble politician, I should like to say that I wish that we could all find it as easy to work together in other fields as well. (Applause.) I think it is remarkable that at such a time of economic depression the revenue should have kept up so well. There is, how- ever, one misapprehension which an observa- tion made in a previous speech gives me this opportunity to correct, and I should be glad to do it. It is with regard to flag days. Sir Godfrey Baring said he was thoroughly in favour of flag days. So am I. I think they are admirable institutions. About a year ago, I think it was, an enterprising press photo- grapher went up to Aberdeen in the middle of the summer, when it is light nearly all night, and he took a flashlight photograph of Union Street, the principal thoroughfare of Aberdeen, at night, when there was not a single soul in it, and he printed it with the observation : " Aberdeen on a Flag Day." (Laughter.) He distributed those all over the United Kingdom. I wish to make it quite plain that not only does Aberdeen do better than almost any other city in the United Kingdom when it comes to flag days, but that there is very good reason to suppose that the gentleman who took the photograph was an Englishman. (Laughter and Applause.) I think the reason why the revenue of the Institution keeps up in this remarkable way at the present time is because the service appeals to the imagination as perhaps nothing else appeals in the whole world : adventure, physical courage, high endurance, in defence not of self, not of personal interests, not even of country, but of the lives of others.

I am sure it is that combination of adventure, courage and altruism that appeals to the imaginations of all of us, and particularly of the young. Which of us has not read in our youth the magnificent stories of the life-boat rescues on the Goodwin Sands, and which of us does not keep those stories fresh in his memory ? We know that those stories are being repeated almost every day ; and every week that passes some ten or eleven lives are being saved by the life-boats round the coasts of this country.

Ladies and gentlemen, we live on the sea and we live by the sea, and I venture to suggest this before I sit down—that the day we let our sea services, our seafarers, and perhaps I may add our fishermen, go—the day we let them die—we shall imperil our very existence. I do not think there is a single man or woman in this hall, or outside it for that matter, who would not wish to congratulate the Institution upon a splendid year of work and service and to wish it well for the future. (Applause.) The resolution was put to the meeting and carried unanimously.

Presentations to Honorary Workers.

THK SECRETARY : Since the last annual meeting three honorary workers have been appointed honorary life-governors of the Institution, the highest honour which it can confer on an honorary worker—Miss Lucy Silvester, honorary secretary of the St.

Albans branch; Sir George Mellor, late chairman of the St. Anne's branch ; and Mr.

J. M. Mawson, honorary secretary of the Piel (Barrow) branch.

Unfortunately they are none of them able to be present this afternoon to receive the vellums, signed by the Prince of Wales, recording their appointments.

Since the last annual meeting sixteen gold badges, which are given only for distinguished honorary service, have been awarded. Seven of the recipients are present this afternoon to receive them.

CHELSEA.

The LADY EDITH DRUMMOND, in recogni- tion of the distinguished work which she has done for the life-boat service in London for many years.

SOUTHAMPTON.

Mr. C. J. SHARP, J.P., in recognition of his long and valuable co-operation as chairman of the branch.

BEMBRIDGE.

Mr. W. COUI.DREY, in recognition of his valuable co-operation as honorary secretary of the branch for thirty-three years.

BIRMINGHAM.

Mr. T. O. GRAY, in recognition of the valuable work which he has done for the life-boat service, especially as honorary treasurer of the branch.

FOLKESTONE.

Miss ETHEL HOPKINS, in recognition of her valuable co-operation, especially as honorary secretary of the women's auxiliary of the branch.

PERTH.

Mr. W. STKACHAN, in recognition of his valuable co-operation for twenty-five years, especially as honorary secretary of the branch for the last seventeen years.

LONDON.

Mr. JOSEPH GROSSMAN, of British Inter- national Pictures, in recognition of the valuable help which he has given by the production of the life-boat film " Heroes of the Sea," as the result of which the Institution has so far benefited by upwards of £1,000.

The Lady Mayoress presented the badges.

Mrs. Astley Roberts.

Mrs. ASTLEY ROBERTS : My Lord Mayor, my Lady Mayoress, your Excellencies, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen : The resolution which I have the honour to propose is a resolution of thanks to women for their work on behalf of the life-boat service. There are thousands of them, women of all classes, in all parts of the British Isles. I shall ask you to thank them all. But I am sure that you are thinking, as I am, that we owe our first gratitude and admiration to the women, represented here this afternoon, who take their part in the actual work of rescue.

(Applause.) In the first report of the Institution, when it began its work over a century ago, you will find the names only of men. Even among the subscribers there are only a dozen names of women. Men founded the Institution. They set it on its way. It was not until it had been in existence for some years that a woman's name first appears in its records. That woman was Queen Victoria.

She became the Institution's patron when she ascended the throne.

A year later another great name appears, the first woman to win the Institution's medal for gallantry—Grace Darling. Other women have won medals since ; and there have always been women on the coasts, the wives and daughters of the life-boat crews, who, as launchers, have helped in the work of saving lives. They have done this for the greater part of a century. They have done it as a matter of course. They have made no fuss about it. They would be the last to see anything extraordinary in it. We have now a younger generation of women who in sport and in work, on land and in the air, have set themselves to show that not in courage only, but in physical skill and endurance, they can emulate men. I think we may well remind them that they are not the first, but that in the life-boat service, not only their own contemporaries, but the contemporaries of their mothers and grand- mothers and great-grandmothers, have always been ready to face wind and weather, the sea at its angriest, the gales of winter nights at their most bitter, and to labour side by side with the men, when lives were in peril at sea. (Applause.) It is these women, represented here by the women of Dungeness, whom I ask you, first of all, to thank. But besides these splendid women, there are thousands of others who in a different way are members of the life- boat service. It is twelve years now sincethe Ladies' Life-boat Guild was founded, but long before then women had been taking an increasing part in the work of raising funds for the service. In the first reports, as I have said, you find only the names of men. If you look at the Institution's reports to-day you will find at least as many women as men among those who are actively working for it.

For many years now it has been true to say that the greater part of the Institution's funds has been raised by the work of women.

That is as it should be. That is where we can give it our best help. It is the great strength of the service that it not only has the support of every class, but that its work is shared between men and women.

(Applause.) I would like to say just a word or two, if I may be allowed to do so, my Lord Mayor, as one of the Institution's oldest workers—since 1908. I hailed with delight the committee of management's idea of forming the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, and the Eastbourne and district guild now has 396 members. As a flag day organizer and collector of many years' experience, I should like to stress three points in favour of every woman worker joining the guild. Firstly, the badge, costing 2s. 6d., stands as a bond of comradeship between its members, especially upon occa- sions like this, or at meetings and life-boat conferences. Secondly, it gives confidence to the corporations.watch committees and police, or those who are responsible for official flag days in the larger seaport or industrial towns, and to the general and ever-generous public, who have the satisfaction of knowing that the life-boat flag day is arranged by and left in the hands of authorized collectors wearing the official badge of the Institution. Thirdly, that by all joining the guild we women help the Institution financially and show in a practical way our high appreciation of its truly national and humane work.

I should like to read to you part of a letter which was received by the Institution a short time ago. It came from a woman on the East Coast. She is a member of one of the most famous of our life-boat families—the Hayletts of Caister. Her great-grandfather won the Institution's gold medal for great gallantry. Her grandfather lost his life in the service. Her father won the silver medal.

She wrote : "I have always had a great desire to help the Institution. Life-boats have always been the chief topic of my home. From a child I have been brought up amongst them. If I were a man I would be proud to carry on our family tradition, but my little bit is to try and raise funds. I am afraid it is only small, but I hope each time to increase it." (Applause.) We cannot all be members of life-boat families with such a great tradition behind us, but I do believe that it is in this modest and devoted spirit that women all over the country, inland as well as on the coast, are working to-day for the life-boat service. I ask you to thank them by passing the reso- lution which I now have the honour to propose: " That this meeting desires to record its sense of the deep obligation of the Institution to the Ladies' Life-boat Guild and its many hundreds of voluntary members for the work which they have done in raising funds for the life-boat service." (Applause.) Mr. Walter Riggs.

Mr. WALTER RIGGS : My Lord Mayor, my Lady Mayoress, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen : I feel it a very great honour to be allowed to second this vote of thanks which has just been proposed by Mrs. Astley Roberts. There is certainly no one in the United Kingdom who can speak with more authority than Mrs. Astley Roberts on the work of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild. She herself has been markedly successful as president of the Eastbourne guild, not only in the work she has carried out herself on behalf of the Institution, but also in inspiring others to carry on that good work. As I am not a member of the guild, I can say things in praise of it which Mrs. Astley Roberts would not be able to say. As a member of the committee of management, I have the honour, in the committee's name, to say what a very deep and increasing debt of gratitude the Institution owes to the Ladies' Life-boat Guild and, indeed, to every individual member of it. In these times of financial stress it is very encouraging to see that they continue the work with the same enthusiasm and with equally successful results as in the past. Without the money that is raised by the help of the Ladies' Life- boat Guild the Institution would indeed find it a very difficult job to carry on its work and to maintain the efficiency of the life-boat service round the coast. Sir Godfrey Baring and Mrs. Astley Roberts referred in their remarks to the number of flag days that have been held in Great Britain and Ireland in the last year. One interesting point is that no less than four and three-quarter million con- tributions were made to the life-boat boxes on those days. That is an enormous number, and when one recollects that practically the whole of the work was done by members of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, it will give you some little idea of what that work means on those days. If that were the only achieve- ment (which it is not by a long way) that the Ladies' Life-boat Guild has done during the last year it would be one very well worthy of gratitude and one of which they could be very proud indeed. (Applause.) Perhaps, as the honorary secretary of a station branch, I may be allowed to add a personal tribute to the work of the guild.

In the old days it was part of my job to try to collect money for the funds of the station.

That has all changed. The guild does it now.

There is not a village anywhere in the area of the Aldeburgh branch that has not a member of the guild. That member organizes that particular district. They collect the money, and I may say they collect it very successfully.

They have in every case more than doubled any subscriptions that I was able to gather in. That shows how in these things the ladies can do so very much better than we mere men. I think that my experience is shared by every honorary secretary on the coast, and it is a remarkable fact that the more one gets interested in and the more closely one is associated with the life-boat service, the more one feels what a debt of gratitude we owe to the guild. There is no doubt whatever that the Ladies' Life-boat Guild is one of the chief financial bulwarks of the Institution, and I think that the splendid record of its achievements in the past must be, and indeed will be, an inspiration for their future effort and further success. I have much pleasure, my Lord Mayor, in seconding the resolution proposed by Mrs. Astley Roberts. (Applause.) The resolution was put to the meeting and carried unanimously.

Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt.

SIR GODFREY BARING : My Lord Mayor, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is now my privilege and great pleasure to move the following resolution : " That the hearty thanks of this meeting be given to the Lord Mayor for his kindness in presiding, and to the speakers at this the hundred and ninth annual general meeting of the Royal National Life-boat Institution." My Lord Mayor, I should like to say that everyone who is interested in the life-boat service (I think we are all interested in it here to-day) is deeply grateful to you for two things: First of all, for coming here to preside with such dignity over this excep- tionally good meeting, and, secondly, for allowing us to meet in this historic hall, under such delightful conditions. Your distin- guished predecessors in the past, my Lord Mayor, have always supported our cause with the greatest readiness and generosity and we are delighted that that tradition .is being carried on by yourself. We are deeply grateful to you for presiding over our meeting this afternoon, and for allowing us to meet in this hall. (Applause.) May I also thank the speakers for the excellent speeches which have been made here this afternoon? Sir Percy Mackinnon is the chairman of that great institution, Lloyd's, which has always supported the Royal National Life-boat" Institution with the utmost generosity. We were so glad that he was able to move one of these resolutions.

Th'en I should like to thank Mr. Boothby for, if I may say so, the wholly admirable and eloquent speech which he made in seconding the resolution. I am certain we listened with great approbation to Mr.

Boothby's plea for conciliation and appease- ment in national affairs, for which I am sure Mr. Boothby does great work in the House of Commons from week to week, and almost from day to day. With regard to that scandalous libel on the great City of Aberdeen which he has movingly described to us, I think he was a little mistaken in saying that the photograph was taken at a very early hour in the morning. What really happened was this. The photograph was taken on a day when there was a house-to-house col- lection and the whole population of the city were waiting eagerly in their houses for the collector to call in order that they might make a most generous contribution to the funds. (Loud laughter.) I should like to thank Mrs. Astley Roberts for what she has said about the Ladies' Guild and I should like to thank her for the wonderful work which she has done in the past. She has made Eastbourne one of the strongholds of life-boat work. We are deeply grateful to her, not only for speaking to-day, but for her many years of excellent work. I have much pleasure in moving this resolution of thanks. (Applause.) The Hon. George Colville.

Mr. GEORGE COLVILLE : My Lord Mayor, my Lady Mayoress, Ladies and Gentlemen : I do not think I can usefully add anything to what Sir Godfrey Baring has said by way of thanks. The hospitality and charity of the Mansion House are proverbial and to-day has been no exception to the rule. I beg to second the resolution.

The resolution was put to the meeting and carried unanimously and with acclamation.

THE CHAIRMAN: Sir Godfrey Baring and Mr. George Colville, Ladies and Gentlemen : I sincerely thank you on behalf of all the speakers, the sheriffs, the Lady Mayoress, and myself for the very hearty response which you gave to that delightful speech. I would only add this—that we in the City of London must see to it, ladies and gentlemen, that we are always at the top of the list. (Applause.) Entertainment of Medallists.

After the meeting the coxswains and others who had received awards for gallantry were the guests of the management at the Palladium. They then visited Northcliffe House to see the production of the Daily Mail..