For the first time in its history the annual meeting of the Royal National Life-boat Institution was held at the Royal Festival Hall, London, when the Chairman, Admiral Sir Wilfrid Woods, G.B.E., K.C.B., D.S.O., referred to the decisions made following the Fraserburgh life-boat disaster in 1970 and the effect these will have on the shape of the life-boat fleet in the years ahead.

He said: 'Immediately after the findings of the court were published the executive committee of the Committee of Management held a special meeting to examine them. As a result a number of special studies were instituted and the technical groups charged with these investigations were called upon to report to a full meeting of the Committee of Management in February of this year. This they duly did, and a number of policy decisions resulted.

'The principal features were a considerable acceleration of our building programme; immediate steps to be taken to improve the safety factors of a number of our non-self-righting life-boats; the setting up of an expert technical consultative committee, and a decision to approach the Government to seek information on Government plans for helicopter coverage of coastal waters for search and rescue. In addition, the R.N.L.I, confirmed its willingness, which it had already expressed, to participate in efforts to improve the co-ordination of search and rescue services.' What does all this mean in detail and what does it mean in terms of money ? As an immediate measure, the building of new life-boats will be doubled during the next two years, bringing the average number of new self-righting lifeboats to be built in a year from five up to 10.

Over the next five years a probable capital expenditure of about £3 million is envisaged.

New life-boats to be built will include one of the 70 ft. class, bringing the total of this class up to three, and also four of the 48 ft. 6 in. Solent class and six of a modified and improved version of the 37 ft. Oakley class, and these will be fitted with radar and covered wheelhouses.

These boats will replace some of the 97 Liverpool, Watson and Barnett non-self-righting boats which are now in service. The replacement of this number of non-self-righting boats is a very formidable task in itself and is bound to take time. In addition, four more of the very successful 44 ft. steel United States Coast Guard class will be built and, when the necessary detailed drawings have been prepared, two 50 ft. versions of this boat. These six boats arean interim step towards the introduction of the fast afloat boat concept which, it is hoped, will be progressed when the trials of the two 52 ft.

fast life-boat prototypes have been concluded.

Production of these boats will then follow in glass reinforced plastic (fibre glass).

Admiral Woods continued: 'So far as existing non-self-righting life-boats which cannot be replaced in the reasonably near future are concerned we will continue with the modifications to improve their stability and sea-keeping qualities already made in the former Longhope life-boat which is now operating successfully at Arranmore in County Donegal.

'Further investigations have convinced us that it is now feasible to make the 47 ft. Watson class self-righting at a reasonable cost and without the major reconstruction which had previously been thought necessary, and this will be done in those boats of the class which have enough life left to justify the expenditure. To deal with boats which cannot be made selfrighting, experiments are being carried out at the British Hovercraft Corporation's laboratories at East Cowes with the fitting of automatically inflatable bags designed to right a capsized boat.' The speaker, referring to the subject of helicopter coverage and communications, said talks had started with the government departments concerned.

Admiral Woods went on: 'From this summary you will see that we are about to embark on an ambitious and costly programme at a time when money is not freely available. I would like to stress here that whatever may have been the findings of the Fraserburgh inquiry, and whatever may have been said by the press, the Committee of Management regard it as their clear duty to our crews to put these measures in train with the least possible delay. They are, of course, in line with the findings of the inquiry, and we believe that both our active supporters and the general public will accept that we have made the right decision.

'We have set ourselves a great task in the knowledge that more and more is demanded of the life-boat service, and it is the tradition of the service not to fail. Last year there were more calls on our crews than ever before and they saved the lives of more people than in any other year in time of peace. As a reflection of this, forthe first time the annual cost of the service exceeded £2 million.

'In addition to the reasons for increasing our capital expenditure, which I have just described, we are, of course, faced with the unpalatable fact that recurrent costs have been rising faster than income despite the magnificent efforts of our branches throughout the country. This is largely due to inflation but also is because of our increased operational activity. This has made us highly conscious of the need to modernise our organisation and administrative methods in order to ensure maximum efficiency and cost effectiveness. We have, therefore, engaged Messrs. P.A. Management Consultants Ltd. to advise us. . . .' Admiral Woods said that over the past yearthey had raised a record figure of about £2-j million and there was in actual fact a surplus of £246,000. While it had been a very great relief that they had not had to make further inroads into reserves, which have suffered by about £100,000 over the last five years, it had to be recognised that the reasons for the surplus were, on the one hand, an unexpected surge of large legacies and gifts and, on the other, that the R.N.L.I, did not have to pay as many bills as they had expected due to delays in building new boats. These liabilities had, therefore, merely been held over to this year or later.

Admiral Woods said he wanted to make the position about reserves 'absolutely clear.' Total reserves amounted to some £2 millions, only a quarter of a million more than the total expenditure for 1970, but due to entailments of various sorts the readily usable reserves were rather less than £1 million. At the 1970 rate of expenditure this was the cost of less than five months' working.

He added: 'I think it is really hardly conceivable that financial support for the Institution would suddenly dry up completely; nevertheless, this situation, taken in conjunction with the pressures I have already described resulting from the Longhope and Fraserburgh incidents, is quite enough to cause considerable concern.' Admiral Woods pointed out that the new proposed building programme could involve about three and a half millions over the next five years.

Taking into account rising recurrent costs, he estimated that the R.N.L.I, would need to raise an extra £4.4 millions in those five years, or nearly £1 million extra per year.

'If we are unsuccessful in attaining this target in 1971—and we have a variety of plans for raising the extra revenue—we might well be faced with the choice, after exhausting all normal and extraordinary fund raising methods, said Admiral Woods, of either reducing our building rate or seeking government help.

I emphasise that we have no plans for taking such a step at present, and of course, that we are very alive to the possibility of government help reducing the generous support we now receive from the public.

' The days when the country was wealthy, boats were simple and cheap and there was virtually nobody else to do the job, are over. Modern complexities have caught up with us. I, for one, take the view that our responsibility under our charter is to operate an efficient life-boat service in conjunction with other search and rescue services, financed by voluntary subscription, for as long as we are able, because I am quite certain that this is, for the country, the cheapest and most effective way of doing it.' The Duchess of Kent, who represented her husband, the Duke of Kent, who is President of the R.N.L.I., said: 'There are today many voluntary organisations working in a great variety of fields, but I do not think there can beany which is better known, or more of a household word, than the R.N.L.I. Even so, it is all too easy for people to take it for granted that the life-boat will be there when it is needed, and to forget that these brave men, whose families are equally courageous, are volunteers and that they in turn are largely supported by voluntary helpers all over the country. It is, I think, a rather strange quirk of human nature, though perhaps not untypical, that the vast bulk of the life-boat service's financial support is given by those who rarely themselves go to sea.

'In an age when we in this country are accustomed to looking to the State for many of those needs and services which once we had to procure by our own efforts, the proud spirit of independence so characteristic of the life-boat service is an inspiring example. It is also a vital tradition which ought to flourish and continue in spite of rising costs and increasing pressures.

I think the last 12 months in particular have clearly illustrated these great demands which the Institution is facing. They have shown that in addition to saving more lives than in any previous peace time year, the Institution went to the help of a national disaster by sending inshore rescue boats to assist in relief work when East Pakistan was devastated by floods towards the end of 1970.' The Duchess of Kent then presented the following awards: Coxswain Matthew Lethbridge (St. Mary's) a bar to his silver medal for a service to the Swedish m.v.

Nordanhav on 21st February, 1970. In the absence of Coxswain Lethbridge the award was accepted on his behalf by Dr. W. D. Bell, honorary secretary of the St. Mary's life-boat station. For the same service first bronze bars were awarded to Second Coxswain Ernest Guy and Motor Mechanic William R.

Burrow.

Coxswain Dermot Walsh (Valentia) silver medal for a service to the m.v. Oranmore, of Limerick on 20th February, 1970.

Coxswain Stephen Whittle (Dunmore East) silver medal for a service to the m.f.v.

Glenmalure on 25th November, 1970 Crew Member David Brunton (Dunbar) bronze medal for a service involving a boy and a man outside Dunbar harbour on 23rd December, 1970.

Coxswain Alfred Maddrell, B.E.M. (Port Erin) bronze medal for a service to the m.v.

Moonlight of Greenock on 9th September, 1970.

Coxswain Ronald Hardy (Swanage) bronze medal for a service to a boy trapped in a cave on 12th September, 1970.

Coxswain William Harland (Whitby) bronze medal for a service to the m.f.v. Gannet on 15th July, 1970.

Lieutenant E. D. Stogdon, R.N.V.R.,Mr. M. B. J. Brinton, Mr. R. Cole and Mr.

C. J. Pelham special vellums of thanks for flood relief work in East Pakistan with inshore rescue boats (see THE LIFE-BOAT, April, 1971).

At a later stage in the programme the Duchess of Kent presented gold badges and bars to a number of R.N.L.I, workers for long and distinguished honorary services. These and other awards were published in the April Journal.

Captain Hans Hansson, Director of the Swedish Life-boat Service, the guest speaker, said: 'The former Norwegian Labour Minister of Fishing, Mr. Reidar Karlsen, once put it like this at a life-boat meeting: "There are so many services which ought to be, and can be, carried out without the costs being necessarily covered by State or municipal appropriations." It is not only because I am accustomed to the voluntary life-boat service that I feel so much for these words. No, the true explanation is a deeper one.

A long life has taught me and many experiences have convinced me that private enterprise under reasonable control is the best way to stimulate and bring about all kinds of human activities; and at the same time it works with a built-in effort to avoid unnecessary waste of time, manpower and money.

'Our organisations are not for debates and polemics; they are for hard and dangerous work.

The R.N.L.I, has always come out of public trials and hearings with no spots on its coat of arms. This is very important and should encourage others to join our services.

'How do we make dangerous work safe? Our Swedish Institution is a copy of yours, and so are all life-boat services in the world, although some of them have now been taken over by governments. In Sweden we get no money from the government and we do not ask for it.' Capt. Hansson continued: '/ said before that I believe in private enterprise, and that also means a belief in individual responsibility. Bureaucratic control and guidance do not result in the same effectiveness as does free co-operation with space for mistakes. Many are the battles that I have fought with my military friends about where the commander of an operation should be placed. They cling to the military philosophy, with the admiral on a flagship or ashore. They are right as far as naval operations are concerned, but my people and I leave it to the commander of the rescue cruiser to decide about his operations and to take full responsibility for his decisions' Captain Hansson, who was appointed Director of the Swedish Life-boat Service in 1937, said his organisation was founded in 1907 and is now running 24 life-boat stations.

Finally, Captain Hansson moved: 'That this meeting, fully recognising the important services of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution in its national work of life-saving, desires torecord its hearty appreciation of the gallantry of the coxswains and crews of the Institution's lifeboats, and its deep obligation to the local committees, honorary secretaries, and honorary treasurers of all station branches, and to the honorary officers and thousands of voluntary members of the financial branches and of the ladies' life-boat guild in the working of raising funds to maintain the service." Mr. W. T. Bishop, a member of the Committee of Management, in proposing a vote of thanks to the Duchess of Kent, said: 'We are also grateful. . . for the interest which the Duke, our President, and you yourself take in the work of the Institution, for the visits which the Duke has made to headquarters and to shore stations and which you are about to undertake at Exmouth are a very great encouragement to our gallant crews . . . and also to all that vast army of voluntary workers who do so much behind the scenes to keep this beloved Institution going. It is a great encouragement to them that you should both take this great personal interest.'.