THE LIFE-BO AT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 134 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 33 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to May 31st, 1937 65,196 H.R.H. The Duke of Kent, K.G.

Presidential Address at the Annual Meeting.

LAST year I had the pleasure of speaking at this meeting as a visitor.

It is a much greater pleasure for me to be able to address you this year as your President. (Applause.) I am the fifth member of my family in succession to hold the presidency, and I am proud to carry on this long tradition of close association between the Royal Family and the life-boat service. (Applause.) I know some- thing already of the work of the ser- vice ; I have seen it on many parts of the coast; and I should like to begin my first presidential address by assuring you that I shall always share your pride in its achievements, and follow its work with the greatest interest. (Applause.) A Remarkable Year.

You have before you the annual report for 1936. It is a remarkable report. The Institution has completed its 113th year, and I ask you to think for a moment of what the conditions of shipping were when it was founded.

Our tens of thousands of ships were still dependent on sails. The steamer was only in its infancy. There was no wireless. There were no weather fore- casts to warn ships of gales to come.

A thousand things for the comfort and safety of those at sea which to-day we take as a matter of course did not then exist; and yet, in spite of all the inven- tions of the past century, last year was the busiest in the whole history of the Institution. There were more launches of life-boats to vessels in distress than there have ever been before. There were nine launches for every week of the year, and nearly 500 lives were saved (Applause) • and those launches were made, and those lives were saved, without the loss of a single life among the life-boat crews. That is a splendid proof of the skill of the crews and the quality of their boats ; but, though they came through the risks of a stormy year unscathed, we must never forget that the risks were there. (Applause.) Services to Foreign Vessels.

Many lives besides those of our own people depend on the vigilance of our life-boat service. Of the lives saved last year no fewer than 161 were from foreign vessels belonging to fourteen different countries. The French Am- bassador is with us this afternoon (Applause), and we shall have the pleasure of hearing him speak of our life-boats as a great international ser- vice. All I wish to say is how glad I am to have sitting with me here the representatives of fifteen countries who wish to show their gratitude for those 161 lives. (Applause.) We have here also ten of the 2,000 life-boatmen round our coasts to whose skill and courage nearly 500 men and women, saved last year, owe their lives.

They are men who by outstanding gallantry have won special awards.

You wiU see them for yourselves, and be able to show your gratitude and admiration. To two of them I had the pleasure of presenting medals last year. They have again shown con- spicuous gallantry. When the time conies I will ask you to give them a specially warm welcome. They are Coxswain Mogridge, of Torbay, and Coxswain Sinclair, of Aberdeen.

(Applause.) It has been a very busy year for the life-boat service in other ways. Eleven new motor life-boats were sent to the coast, so that now there are only thirty- five pulling and sailing life-boats left in our fleet; and I believe that in three years I shall be able to announce from this platform that the fleet consists entirely of motor life-boats. (Applause.) Public Support.

I should like now to refer for a moment to another part of the report.

In its way it is as remarkable as the record of launches and lives rescued. It is that part of the report which de- scribes how the Institution's revenue was raised. The report records five special gifts ranging from £3,000 to £10,000 to build motor life-boats. Two of them came from great and distin- guished bodies, the Civil Service and the Ancient Order of Foresters. The other three were from private citizens.

Besides those records of outstanding generosity is the record that over five million people contributed on flag days.

(Applause.) It is indeed a national service to which the wealthy are pre- pared to give their thousands of pounds, and the millions in the streets their pence ! For that great response on flag days I know how much the Institution is indebted to the municipal authorities, and I should like to thank them all, and in particular the Mayors and Mayoresses on this platform, for their generous help. (Applause.) An Appeal.

Yet in spite of these gifts the revenue for the year was £10,000 less than the expenditure. That deficit was due to the very large amount spent on building new life-boats. Fortunately, the In- stitution has such funds in reserve from the generosity of other years that such a deficit does not alarm it, nor does it mean any delay in carrying out the work of mechanizing the fleet. But when I look at that wonderful record it seems to me not right that the public should have given in the year less than the whole sum that was needed.

It is true that over five millions gave on flag days, but our population is nearly fifty millions. There are still millions who give nothing. I look for- ward to the day when every man and woman in the British Isles gives some- thing, however little it may be, to help in the work of this great service.

(Loud applause.).