THE second of three life-boats which are a gift to the British Life-boat Service from the people of Southern Africa, was stationed at Dover in 1949. The first, named the Field- Marshal and Mrs. Smuts, went to Beaumaris, Anglesey, in 1945. The third boat has not yet been built. The money to provide these three boats was collected during the war in the Union of South Africa, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, and the High Commission Territories of Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protector- ate and Zwaziland. The first appeal was made in 1940 by Miss Pattie Price, who enlisted the help of the South African Press and the Navy League of South Africa, and at the beginning of 1942 a Southern African branch of the Institution was formed at Capetown with the Governor General of the Union as its patron, the Prime Minister of the Union, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, as its president, and Sir Herbert Stanley, late Governor and Commander- in-Chief of Southern Rhodesia, as its chairman.

The second of these Southern African life-boats was named at Dover on the 16th of September, 1950. She is a 51-feet Barnett Stromness life-boat, and is the eleventh life-boat to go to Dover, where the station was estab- lished in 1837 and was taken over by the Institution in 1855.

The naming ceremony was held in the Granville Dock. The Mayor of Dover (Councillor W. H. Fish, J.P.), presided. After the life-boat had been described by Commander S. W. F.

Bennetts, D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N., the district inspector of life-boats, His Excellency Dr. A. L. Geyer, High Com- missioner for the Union of South Africa, presented her to the Institution on behalf of the people of Southern Africa. Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Committee of Manage- ment of the Institution, received the life-boat and handed her to Dover, on whose behalf she was accepted by Mr.

K. H. T. Wheeler, honorary treasurer of the branch. The Right Rev.

A. C. W. Rose, M.A., Bishop Suffra- gan of Dover, dedicated the life-boat, assisted bv the Rev.' A. S. Cooper, B.Sc., Vicar of Dover, and the Rev.

I. E. Evans, B.A., B.D. A vote of thanks to those taking part in the ceremony was proposed by Mr. H. T.

Hawksfield, J.P., chairman of the Dover Harbour Board, and seconded by Captain L. T. Sly, superintendent of the Cinque Ports Pilots.

The Countess Mountbatten of Burma, C.I., G.B.E., D.C.V.O., President of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, then named the life-boat Southern Africa.

The singing was led by the choir of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, and was accompanied by the Seamen's Band of the Royal Naval Barracks at Chatham.

After the ceremony, the life-boat, with Lady Mountbatten, Dr. Geyer, the Bishop of Dover, and other guests on board, left the dock and went to sea..