[On Sunday the 21st of February, J954, the B.B.C. broadcast the following appeal by Mr. Richard Dimbleby, O.B.E., in the Home Service. It is reproduced by kind permission of the B.B.C.] I THINK it may surprise many of you to hear that the Life-boat Services of Great Britain, which cover the whole of our coastline and the whole of the coastline of Ireland, South as well as North, are an entirely voluntary con- cern and not controlled or paid for by the Government.

I don't think that I need go into any great detail about the work of the Royal National Life-boat Institution.

If you live anywhere near the coast, you'll know quite a lot about the life-boats, and if you live far inland, you have only to listen to the broad- cast news, or read a newspaper when gales are blowing, to know how the little red and blue life-boats will battle their way out of their stations into the storm the moment that news is received that any ship is in distress on the high seas.

I am very glad to have among the five thousand volunteers in the Life- boat Service a number of friends: men like Fred LTpton, coxswain of one of the busiest life-boats of all, at Waimer— the life-boat that serves and guards the Goodwin Sands. I have been out over the Goodwin Sands with Fred Upton in the Walmer life-boat, and I've seen that pit of raging water where the seas seem to come rolling in from every direction at once, and meet in a confusion of foam and spray studded with the masts and the funnels of the ships that have been wrecked there. Fred knows every yard of that water, and he and his crew and their boat have stood out there for hours cm end to save the crew of some sinking ship in a gale in the middle of a pitch black night. They have even put their life-boat deliberately across the deck of a wrecked vessel in order to pick up members of the crew as the waves flung them over. That sort of manoeuvre—and it is not uncommon— takes something more than superb seamanship, it takes real bravery.

Now I know that there are many people who do not want to be approached even for a cause like this on purely emotional grounds and would prefer to have some hard facts and figures. Since the Life-boat Institution was founded more than 78,500 men and women have been rescued, and in return for that wonder- ful figure more than 300 life-boatmen have been drowned.

Last year our life-boats rescued 351 people from drowning. The cost in life, the lives of life-boatmen, was 14, for life-boats themselves are not immune to the dangers of weather.

The cost in cash was three quarters of a million pounds. Of this total, less than 4 per cent is spent on adminis- tration. The rest goes on the main- tenance of the Service day and night all round the coast, on the repair of life-boats and the costly construction of new and better boats, on rewards and fees and, sadly, annuities and other payments to the widows and the dependants of life-boatmen.

To this appeal for a really national cause I ask you all, wherever you live, to respond. The Life-boat Service is always on duty. To my knowledge, three boats have been out in the past twenty-four hours: from Kirkcud- bright in Scotland to save two fisher- men ; from Teesmouth; and from Tyne- mouth, where the life-boat returned to its station only an hour and ten minutes ago. If you will help us, then the next time that a life-boat is launched on rescue—and it may be within a minute or two—you will be able to feel that you are with it in spirit. Will you please send to me whatever you can afford? The address is quite simple—Richard Dimbleby, Life-boat House, 42 Gros- venor Gardens, London, S.W.I.

The response to Mr. Dimbleby's.

broadcast appeal amounted to £3.302 7s. 5d. Contributions of all sizes came in from 3,943 people of all ages and in all circumstances. One came from a widow with a crippled son, who had only her old age pension to live on.

One came from a bed-ridden invalid in her 94th year. Several others who sent contributions were over 80.

One widow sent her pension for two weeks and another wrote: "As I am 82 years old I do not expect to hear many more appeals, so make an effort to help by this donation." One gift came from "two old African missionaries." Some people sent contributions stat- ing that they knew Walmer or Kirk- cudbright, both of which stations were mentioned in the broadcast, and others in memory of happy holidays spent where there were life-boat stations.

One contributor was a survivor of a life-boat disaster in the last century; another was the widow of a life-boat builder; and another was the sister of a well-known coxswain who recently i died. One anonymous gift came with.

no address on the letter, which merely j asked the Institution to "thank a } sailor's wife through the Bristol Even- ing Post." A large gift came from an infant school in Scotland; another came from children in Worcestershire in a class whose average age was seven; and among the many delightful letters ! received was the following: "DEAR RICHARD DIMBLEBY, " I am sorry I can not give much more than this, but I am only 13 years old and I don't get much for my pocket money a week.

"I hope you will take this kindly.".