IN March Mr. N. V. Wade, the honorary treasurer of the Shiplovers' Society of New South Wales, wrote to the Institution to say that there were Shiplovers' Societies not only in London and Bristol, but in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart, Tasmania. The Society in Sydney had been founded in 1931 by his father, Captain W. J.

Wade, M.B.E., a master of the Loch Line of sailing ships of Glasgow.

During the war it had raised among its members £220, which it had sent to King George's Fund for Sick and Wounded Merchant Seamen. Since the war it had sent food parcels to people in Great Britain whose names had been given to it by the Bristol Shiplovers' Society, and to the masters and crews of ships which carried coal from the Tyne to London, during the coal shortage in the bitter cold of February and March 1947.

The Society had heard that the Institution had lost one of its life-boats, with all her crew in 1947, and Mr.

Wade asked for the story of the disaster, and the names of the relatives of the men who had lost their lives. The names of the twenty relatives of the men of The Mumbles were sent to the Society, and it has sent food parcels to the relatives. With each parcel was a letter which must have given even more pleasure than the parcel. To the widow of Coxswain Gammon Mr. Wade wrote: "This letter is sent to you by the Shiplovers' Society of New South Wales who'se members—many of whom are old sailors—deeply appreciate the splendid work of the British life-boatmen.

"Although we in Australia are far away from the people of Britain we would like you to know that distance does not dim our admiration of your late husband's spirit of unselfishness and gallantry in the work he and his fellow sailors so nobly set out to do. It is this grand spirit in facing difficulties confident and unafraid that has made your country great and its sailors loved and respected by men of goodwill the world over.

"We'feel there is all too little we can do, but as a small token of our esteem and friendship may we ask if you will please accept a little parcel of Australian foods that has been despatched to you this week and which should be delivered in three or four weeks from this date. Our newspapers frequently report the difficulties the British housewife has to meet in this period of food shortage and we therefore hope the little extras sent to you will provide a welcome addition to the home larder." In another letter Mr. Wade said that he was himself a Manchester man, representing in Australia the Manchester Ship Canal, and that it was good to know that the people of Manchester had provided the new life-boat at The Mumbles. He said too that one of the members of the Society had, as an Australian soldier in the war of 1914 to 1918, been stationed at The Mumbles, had met the crew of the life-boat and had gone out with them on practice launches.

To the secretary of the Institution Mr. Wade wrote: " Thank you for your good wishes which have been conveyed to the members of our Society. I have been asked to send you greetings and every good wish, both to you personally and to every member of your great Institution.".