" I have come here to-night as the representative of the committee of management of the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

" We are met in grief and in pride.

The men whom we mourn were loved by many of you; respected by you all; and held in high esteem by the Life- boat Service. Now their names are known everywhere in the British Isles.

From all parts messages of sympathy have come to us. They have come also from other countries—from the life-boat services of France, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Germany, from the men in those countries who endure the same hardships, face the same risks, and, in the end, may also give their lives.

" By those few minutes of disaster in that gale ten days ago, the lives of many of you have been completely changed. Even on this solemn occasion I do not wish to intrude on the grief of the mothers, wives and children who are bereaved. But I would ask you to remember that we all share your sorrow; and that the men and women of the Life-boat Service all round the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland are with you in sympathy at this moment.

" Nothing can take away the burden of your sorrow, but I hope that it may be made lighter by your pride in the courage and self-sacrifice of the men you have lost.

" ' Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.' " These men of St. Ives did more even than to lay down their lives for their friends. They risked them many times, and in the end they laid them down, for strangers whose only claim upon them was that they were in peril.

" In doing this they carried on the great tradition of the Life-boat Service.

One hundred and fifteen years ago, when the Service was founded, it was resolved that the people of all nations should be succoured, when in peril on our coasts, in war and in peace.

From that high ideal the Service has never faltered, and those who have served it best are those who have not hesitated even to give their lives for it.

" These seven men of St. Ives have joined the noble company of life-boat- men who have died on service. They themselves, and their families and their friends, have paid a heavy price in serving that ideal; but I ask you to remember not only the heavy sacrifice, in brave men lost, but what that sacri- fice has achieved.

" Over 66,000 lives have been rescued from shipwreck round these shores since the Life-boat Service came into being. That is the number of lives actually saved. When you think also of their families,- that figure of 66,000 represents an, incalculable number of men, women and children who, by our Life-boat Service, have been saved from suffering and sorrow. I would ask you, even in-your sorrow, to think with pride and thankfulness of the tens of thousands who, by the courage and sacrifice of our life-boatmen, have been spared the sorrow which is yours.

" The names of those seven men whom we mourn are permanently engraved in the records of this town.

They are engraved also in the records of the Life-boat Service. They will be held in honour by all their comrades of the Service, and by all who reverence the achievements of brave men.

"To-night I thank God for their courage, and I pray God to comfort all who mourn for them.

" If something is clone to make a larger life-boat a possibility, you can rely on the Royal National Life-boat Institution supplying you with one.

" Let us offer also our heartfelt sym- pathy to the relatives of the 31 men of the Wilston, wrecked at our gate, to succour whom, it may well be, the St.

Ives life-boat was launched.".