THE Queen's decision to name the new life-boat, The Royal British Legion Jubilee, at Henley-on- Thames on 17th July means that for the first time ever a reigning sovereign will have named one of the R.N.L.I.'s life-boats. Queen Victoria was throughout her life a generous supporter of the life-boat service and herself gave two life-boats, which were stationed at Bembridge and Blackpool, but she never performed a naming ceremony herself. It is the usual custom for life-boats to be named by women, and none of the four kings who succeeded Queen Victoria named life-boats. An account of the Henley ceremony will appear in the October issue of the Journal.

NEW TYPE OF ILB The first of the 21-foot Atlantic class of inshore life-boats to take up operational duties is now stationed at Hartlepool, where she arrived on 25th April. She has been very well received at the station and has aroused widespread interest in the area. The new boat is a semi-inflatable one with a wooden bottom. She is fitted with inflatable buoyancy sponsons, and radio and navigation lights enable her to operate effectively at night. The power is provided by two 40 h.p. outboard engines, and the boat has a speed of nearly 30 knots. She is normally manned by a crew of three.

The prototype of this boat was shown to the l l th International Life-boat Conference in New York, where she was commented upon favourably. Boats of this type are expected to be in operational service in the Netherlands before long.

COUNTY TO PROVIDE OWN BOAT For the first time the R.N.L.I. is appealing to the people of a county and to the visitors who spend their holidays there to provide funds specifically for new local life-boats. New boats are required for both Falmouth and Sennen Cove, and the Institution has been fortunate in receiving about two-thirds of the amount needed to pay for them from an anonymous donor and a trust fund. Some £50,000, however, remains to be found, and a special Cornish Appeals Committee headed by the Lord Lieutenant of the County, Sir John Carew Pole, has been set up.

Early responses to the appeal have been encouraging, R.N.L.I. branches and guilds inCornwall have welcomed it, and considerable interest has been aroused through press and television. Concurrently with this appeal the Jersey branch and its supporters are making efforts to raise within the island of Jersey all the money needed to provide a new Jersey life-boat in due course.

NAMES FOR LIFE-BOAT CLASSES All the different classes of life-boats now in service have been given generic names for the convenience of the general public and of those who speak about life-boats. The class names Oakley, Barnett, Watson and Solent are already familiar, and it was recently decided to give the name Arun to the 52-foot class of life-boat now being developed. This name was chosen because the first of these life-boats was built at Messrs. William Osborne's yards on the river Arun at Littlehampton. Names of rivers are also being chosen for other classes of boat. Thus the 50-foot class, for which most of the design work was done at the R.N.L.I.'s head office in London, is to be known as the Thames class. The first boat of this class will be stationed at Falmouth. The 70-foot class is now known as Clyde, the 44-foot class as Waveney, and the new 37-foot Mark II life-boats shortly to come into service as Rother.

EFFECTS OF THE BUDGET The Institution is affected by three items which were included in the budget, and which at present are being discussed in Parliament as the Finance Bill is debated. These three items are: Legacies—Legacies left to the R.N.L.I, up to £50,000 will no longer be added to a deceased's estate when calculating the rate of estate duty payable. This concession should be most valuable to the Institution, which receives a large proportion of its income from legacies.

Anyone who is considering making a bequest to the Institution and who applies to The Secretary, R.N.L.I., 42 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SWIW OEF, will receive a form of bequest, and any other information required, without any obligation whatever.

Capital Gains Tax—As from April, 1972, those who make gifts to the Institution will no longer have to pay capital gains tax on the gift.

This means that the Institution will receive the gift at its increased value. Before the budget if a donor had given the Institution £10,000 worth of securities which had cost the donor £5,000, capital gains tax would have had to be paid on the £5,000 capital gains. As the Institution does receive many large gifts in the form of securities or property, this is also likely to prove a valuable concession.

Value Added Tax—As the Institution makes no charges for its life-saving service, and as it is a charity, the question of adding V.A.T. for the service provided does not arise. The Institution will, however, have to pay V.A.T. on certain of the materials which it has to purchase, but with the aid of Members of Parliament from all sides of the House, and with the co-operation of the officers of the Customs and Excise, it is expected that all the Institution's life-boats will be zero-rated..