THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET 156 Motor Life-boats 1 Harbour Pulling Life-boat LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Life-boat Service in 1824 to September 30th, 1949 - 76,606 The Prime Minister on the Life-Boat Service4 I HAVE the honour to propose that this meeting, fully recognising 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 cox- swains and crews of the Institution's life- boats, and its deep obligation to the local committees, honorary secretaries, and honorary treasurers of all station branches, and to the honorary officers and hundreds of voluntary members of the financial branches and of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild in the work of raising funds to maintain the Service.

The Tradition of Voluntary Service I draw attention to that because it is essentially a service to humanity, an international service. It not only works for our own people, when they are in peril on the sea, but it brings succour to the crews and passengers of vessels of all nations that, in the course of their lawful occasions, find them- selves in danger round the coasts of these islands. The universality of this ser- vice is recognised by the fact that His Excellency the Ambassador of Sweden is here, and is to second this resolution.

I suppose that, among all the dis- tinctive characteristics of this country, none is more worthy of notice than the tradition of voluntary service to the community. This voluntary service is given in hundreds of different ways.

Sometimes it is supplementary to official action. Sometimes volunteers have paved the way for service which has afterwards been taken up either by the central or by the local govern- ment, and has been extended widely to the whole community, so that part of that voluntary service disappears. But there are always new occasions for voluntary service. The object may change, but the spirit remains the same.

And we have here, in the Life-boat Service, something that was initiated, has been built up and sustained throughout this century-and-a-quarter by the work and the money, freely given, by the citizens. I think it is, perhaps, natural that this should be so with regard to this Service. The life of all of us in these islands depends upon our overseas trade; and I think it is worthy to note the wide and ex- tended sympathy for this work in people who are not directly connected with the sea.

The inception and the early develop- ment of this service was due to lands- men: to a clergyman, Archdeacon * A speech delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Institution on the 27th of June, 1949.Sharp, who started the first life-boat; to a coachbuilder, Mr. Lukin, who designed the first life-boat; and a soldier, Sir William Hillary, whose activity converted local efforts into a great national movement. To-day, all round our coasts, the life-boats are mainly manned by local volunteers, many of them fishermen, others men who go down to the sea in boats and ships, some of them landsmen; and the money that supports the Service is given by thousands of subscribers up and down the country. As the report shows, and as the details of the awards we have heard read this afternoon demonstrate, the need for this service is as great as ever, and the courage of the life-boatmen is no less than that of the men who preceded them.

Unfailing Public Support When one looks back at developments over the last twenty-five years there has been a major development in the substitution of motor propulsion for human propulsion; and now all the 156 life-boats right round our shores, from the Shetland Islands to the Channel Islands, are equipped with motors.

But, inevitably, cost increases. Im- provements have to be made; improve- ments in the equipment of the life-boats and in methods of launching are pro- ceeding all the time. Special wireless sets, completely protected from the water, which keep the life-boats in touch with the shore actually during their life-saving operation, are being installed. But all those developments, so necessary if the progress of scientific research and invention is to be fully used in assisting in saving life at sea, have meant that the expenditure has gone up, and it is nearly three times what it was twenty-five years ago.

Therefore, the need for a generous response from the public is as great as ever. We can all feel most grateful that that response is always forthcoming.

It is, therefore, I think, right that in this resolution we should pay tribute to those who subscribe and to all those who are instrumental in raising funds for the maintenance of the service, because, as everybody knows, there is an immense amount of voluntary organisation and work needed for the great number of small sums which have been collected to make the great total that is needed. Still more do we desire to pay our tribute to the coxswains and crews of the life-boats who, at the hazard of their lives, serve their fellow- men.

I suppose most of us might have thought that sea-travel, with all the scientific devices now available, would have resulted in fewer calls on the service; but actually one reads that the life-boats were launched 603 times in the last year, as compared with 485 times in 1938, which was then a record year.

Daily Courage in the Time of Peace Inevitably, over the years, there is a toll of lives of the brave men of the life- boats. In the last twenty-five years forty-seven lives have been lost, while thirteen thousand lives have been saved.

Behind those cold statistics what a great drama of man's fight with the elements is hidden! I suppose all of us have read these stories of the sea.

Some of us may have been at the coast in a storm and seen the life-boat going out. What courage, resource and un- selfishness have been displayed! I think it is as well that we should keep those things in mind. We all have vivid recollections of the heroism shown by the men and women of the whole of this country during the war. I think it is well to have constantly in mind that these qualities which the fierce glare of war lights up so brilliantly, are being shown every day in time of peace in many walks of life, and, most of all, in the Life-boat Service. Every day, somewhere in this country, ordinary people prove by their actions that our human nature, so often maligned, is a very fine thing, and that the unselfish desire to serve their fellow men, dis- regarding all personal risk, is still a powerful motive in life.

I think the record of the life-boatmen should inspire all of us in our daily work, and I am sure the resolution, which I am moving this afternoon, expresses not only the view of this meeting but the feelings of men and women in this country, and in all countries, for those who continue to give this wonderful service to humanity..