THE Annual Meeting was held at the Central Hall,- Westminster, on the 27th of June, 1949, with Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Committee of Management in the chair.

H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent, Presi- dent of the Institution, presented the medals for gallantry and other awards, and gave her presidential address.

The Prime Minister (the Right Hon.

C. R. Attlee, C.H., M.P.) proposed the resolution of gratitude to the coxswains and crews of life-boats, the honorary officers of the stations, and the hono- rary officers of the financial branches and Ladies' Life-boat Guild. His Excel- lency the Swedish Ambassador (Herr Gustaf Hagglof) seconded the resolution.

The Right Hon. Lord Ammon, a vice-president of the Institution, pro- posed the vote of thanks to the Duchess of Kent, and it was seconded by Captain Sir Arthur Morrell, K.B.E., D.L., a member of the Committee of Manage- ment.

Supporting the Duchess of Kent on the platform were the Mayor arid Mayoress of Westminster, Mrs. C. R.

Attlee, the Mayor's and Mayoresses of fifty other London boroughs, the Mayor and Mayoress of Weymouth, representatives of the Ministry of Transport, the Coastguard, the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, King George's Fund for Sailors, and the Ship- wrecked Mariners' Society, vice-presi- dents and honorary life-governors of the Institution, members of the Com- mittee of Management and members of the Central London Women's Com- mittee. After the meeting the Com- mittee of Management entertained to tea the Duchess of Kent, Mr. and Mrs.

Attlee, the Swedish Ambassador and the other guests on the platform.

The Chairman Again we welcome to our meeting with very great pleasure our President, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. (Applause.) Year after year Her Royal Highness shows her interest in our work not only by speaking at this meeting, and by presenting their awards to our life-boatmen and our honorary workers, but by her visits to the life-boat stations. There must be few now, except those to whom the Service is their daily work, who have a wider and more personal know- ledge of the Service and its crews.

We also give a very hearty welcome to the Prime Minister. Mr. Attlee is the first Prime Minister to honour us with his presence at our annual meeting, and we do deeply appre- ciate it that, in spite of the ever-increasing burden of his office, he should spare the time to come here. (Applause.) I am not with- out hope that it will be both a pleasure, and a relief, to him to speak on a subject on which the whole country is united—its pride and confidence in its Life-boat Service. (Ap- plause.) We increasingly value the close co-opera- tion between the Life-boat Services of all countries, and two years ago, through the kindness of the Norwegian Service, we were able to resume the international life-boat conferences. To-day we have with us the Swedish Ambassador, the representative of another country of splendid seamen, which has a Life-boat Service with a most distin- guished record, and which has been very generous in its recognition of the work of our own Service.

This year the Mayors and Mayoresses of more London Boroughs than ever before are sitting on this platform. They, too, are busy men and women and we are very grateful for their presence, and for the help which then- boroughs give to the Institution.

The report and accounts are before you and I do not need to repeat what you will find in them, but I should like, for a moment, to recall the scene in this hall, twenty-five years ago, when we held here a service of thanks- giving for the completion of the first century of the Life-boat Service. There wiU be some present to-day who were present then.

Another twenty-five years have passed, the first quarter of our second century has been completed; and when I look at the record of those years I feel a very great pride that throughout that tune I have been privileged to be the Chairman of the Committee of Management of the Institution. (Applause.) In those twenty-five years our life-boats rescued nearly 14,000 lives. It is a great record. Twenty-five years ago the majority of our life-boats were still pulling and Bailing boats. To-day we have a vastly more power- ful fleet, all motor boats. Twenty-five years ago the Service cost under £235,000. Last year, I regret to say, it cost over £670,000.

That our income has kept pace with that increase is the measure of out debt to our honorary workers. At the same tune it is the greatest proof that we could have of the confidence of the British people in the Insti- tution. (Applause.) I have now formally to move the adoption of the report and accounts for 1948.

Reports and Accounts and Elections The report and accounts for 1948 were adopted, and the President, vice-presidents,treasurer and other members of the Com- mittee of Management, and the auditors, were elected.

Presentation of Medals The secretary read accounts of services by the life-boats at Weymouth, Fleetwood and Clovelly, and the Duchess of Kent presented the awards for gallantry: To COXSWAIN FREDERICK PALMER, OF WEYMOUTH, DORSET, the silver medal for the rescue of four lives from a tug in a rough sea and fog-on the 2nd of April, 1949, just as the tug was about to be wrecked on the Chesil Beach. Coxswain Palmer won the bronze medal in 1948.

To JAMES MCDERMOTT, THE MOTOR- MECHANIC OF WEYMOCTH, DORSET, the bronze medal for the same service.

To COXSWAIN JAMES LEADBETTER, OF FLEETWOOD, LANCASHIRE, the bronze medal for twice rescuing the crew of the ketch Alpha, of Stranraer, in a gale on the 3rd and 4th of April, 1949, when she was driven on the sand banks.

To PERCY SHACKSON, THE BOWMAN, OF CLOVELLY, DEVON, the bronze medal for rescuing two young Americans, when they were trapped under the cliffs on the 30th of August, 1948.

To WILLIAM BRAUND, THE ASSISTANT MOTOR MECHANIC, OF CLOVELLY, DEVON, the bronze medal for the same service.

To COXSWAIN GEORGE LAMEY, OF CLO- VELLY, DEVON, the Institution's thanks on vellum for the same service. Coxswain Lamey won the thanks on vellum in 1944.

The Duchess of Kent I am very pleased to come here to-day and to share with you the satisfaction and pride which we must all feel at the completion of another year of work well done; a year in which over five hundred lives were saved, without the loss of one.

It is my privilege to meet on this platform new life-boatmen who, in recognition of their courage and gallantry, come here each year to receive medals and awards. The bravery of the Service seems inexhaustible. It has been a great pleasure to me to present medals to the men from Fleetwood and Clovelly, and to present, once again, a medal to Coxswain Palmer, of AVeymouth, who was here last year for an earlier act of gallantry.

At its foundation a hundred and twenty- five years ago, the Life-boat Service declared that "the subjects of all nations be equally the objects of the Institution, as well in war as in peace." I think that no one can read the annual report without being impressed by the fidelity of the Institution throughout the years to that splendid principle. I feel sure that all seafaring peoples will remember with gratitude the services of our life-boats, which this year went out to help the ships of fourteen other countries, and rescued from them over a hundred lives; and, indeed, this gratitude has been expressed by Sweden, which has rewarded the Institution by pre- senting its ' plaque of merit.' in recognition of its services to Swedish ships by men of the Scottish life-boats.

Help has also been given by the Service in other ways, and there are now on the Belgian coast two life-boats, built last year in British shipyards to the plans of the Institution, and under its supervision.

We should feel especially proud of the generosity with which the British public have met the greatly increased, and still increasing, costs of the Service. That generosity, like the gallantry of our crews, seems inexhaust- ible. I know, however, that we could not count on such generosity if it were not for the untiring devotion of the thousands of our honorary workers. Their readiness to remind a busy people of the needs and claims of the Service, and the immediate response which the people make to their appeal, have enabled the Institution to provide all that the Service needs in the way of new equipment, new boats, and new devices to help in the work of saving life.

We look back with thankfulness to the first quarter of our second century, and as we embark on the second quarter I send my most sincere thanks and my best wishes to the coxswains and crews, to the honorary workers, and to the British public, in the full belief that the work of the coming years will be carried out with the same splendid success.

(Applause.) The Prime Minister The Prime Minister then made the speech which will be found on p. 337.

The Swedish Ambassador It gives me very great pleasure indeed to have been asked to second the resolution moved so eloquently by the Prime Minister, this resolution of thanks, thanks to the gallant seamen, thanks to the hard-working officials, and thanks to the generous benefactors of this great Institution. It gives me great pleasure also, because it gives me an oppor- tunity of explaining why we, in my country, are especially grateful to the Service, and for the generous help given by the Life-boat Institution. If you look at the journal pub- lished by the Institution, you will find in the last number a short description (it is one of many) of what happened to a Swedish ship which, one dark night in January last, was stranded up in Scotland. I read this record.

The life-boats of Whitehills and Buckie came out seven times in very rough weather, rescued the Swedish ship and rescued the 19 Swedish seamen who were in a perilous position. A little further on, in the same number of the journal, I find another descrip- tion of a Swedish ship in distress last January, also saved by the gallantry of the life-boat crews from Whitehills and Buckie. If Icould go back to the years 1946, 1947 and 1948, I could find many other examples of bravery and assistance for which Swedish seamen and Swedish shipping are very grateful.

This is, of course, first of all, a matter of human lives and that is, undoubtedly, the most important; but it is also, I venture to suggest, a matter of national, or, shall I say, international interest. Sweden, like Great Britain, is a seafaring country, dependent upon its foreign trade. Indeed, her life-line is her trade line to the West; and I think some of you would be surprised if I told you that the sea-borne traffic carried through the Sound into the Baltic, and from the Baltic out to the North Sea, is in volume far more important than,* for instance, the traffic n ing every year through the Suez Canal.

i, therefore, in volume a very important trade carried on between Scandinavia and the rest of the world, and it is to us of the very greatest importance that we know that the shores of the British Isles are guarded by the guardians sent there by the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

I have a second reason to be particularly happy to second this resolution of thanks.

The Swedish coast is 3,000 miles long, or more. The Swedish Life-boat Service was set up a long tune ago by the Swedish Government, but I think it has to be admit- ted that this government-sponsored Service was not fully effective. It did not really meet the needs of the increase in shipping.

Therefore, some fifty years ago, private people in Sweden, people interested in shipping, but also people interested in human welfare, set up a private association which has been very active during the last half-century. Indeed, the government-sponsored Service has ac- tually handed over the best part of its activities to this private association. (Ap- plause.) The Swedish Association, which has been happy this year to award its medals to some of the branches of the Institution, has asked me to convey to-day its most sincere greet- ings and its very deep-felt thanks to the Royal National Life-boat Institution; thanks for the generous help given, and thanks for the inspiration it has given to its Swedish sister organisation.

With these words, Mr. Chairman, I beg leave to second the resolution of thanks pro- posed by the Prime Minister, to this great institution, the Royal National Life-boat Institution of Great Britain. (Applause.) Presentation to Honorary Workers Since the last meeting four honorary workers had been appointed honorary life- governors of the Institution. This is the highest honour which it can confer on an honorary worker, and the Duchess of Kent presented vellums, signed by herself as Presi- dent of the Institution, to those who were present at the meeting: MRS. GRENSIDE, OF GODALMING.

Miss S. HAMILTON, OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.

MRS. ROSS-SHORE, representing her father, MR. A. ROBERTSON, OF EASTBOURNE.

The gold badge, which is given only for distinguished honorary service, had been awarded to fourteen honorary workers, and the Duchess of Kent presented the badges to six who were present at the meeting: MRS. M. P. KENYON, OF BRADBURY.

Miss L. J. G. COOK, OF BURY.

MRS. E. MASON, OF CARNFORTH.

Miss E. A. ANKRITT, OF HESTON AND ISLEWORTH.

MRS. C. OSBORNE, OF NEWBURY.

MRS. M. CRERAR, OF ROMILJEY.

VICE-ADMIRAL A. KEMMIS-BETTY, D.S.O., OF SEAFORD.

MR. W. F. T. POWELL, OF SWANAGE.

MR. H. M. TODD, OF ULVEBSTON.

MRS. D. C. GARDINER, OF WARRINGTON.

Vote of Thanks A vote of thanks to H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent was proposed by Lord Ammon and seconded by Captain Sir Arthur Morrell.

Three cheers were then given for Her Royal Highness..