IT GAVE ME great pleasure to be elected Chairman of the Institution at the meeting of the Committee of Management on June 28 in succession to Major- General Ralph Farrant. As I am sure you are all aware, he has left the Institution in excellent shape and all I have to do is to keep up the momentum; I do, therefore, ask you to give me the same support that you have given General Farrant; this should enable us to raise the huge amount of money required each year to keep the Institution at its present high standard (about £10m is needed this year), to make sure thai our crews have the best boats and equipment available, and to deploy them as efficiently as possible. This, plus knowing the vast amount of support they receive from you and all members of the public, keeps their morale and enthusiasm at a very high level.

I look forward to visiting as many branches and guilds as possible during my term of office, and to thanking many of you personally for all your hard work.

i SHOULD LIKE to thank all those readers of THE LIFEBOAT who have written to me and sent me their good wishes as I start my new job as the Director and Secretary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. And I also thank all those of you at lifeboat stations, branches and guilds who came along to meet me when I paid my brief first visits around the country. Time prevented me from visiting many places.

I want to pay a special tribute to John Atterton, the Deputy Director, who has acted as Director for over six months this year and whose friendship, help and wise counsel have been invaluable to me.

In my very short time with the RNLI I have learnt a number of things—but I have also learnt that there is still a great deal to learn.

First and foremost, my job must be to ensure that everything connected with putting the lifeboats to sea is in first class order—that includes the men, their training, health and welfare, the boats, their design, construction and equipment and all the support which is needed to keep the service in tip top condition.

Next is the vital question of money.

And of course to carry out the first part of my job—putting the lifeboats to sea—we need a lot of money. Everything costs more every year. We are living in inflationary times and so we are always looking for more money. I am already quite delighted and amazed at the enthusiasm and dedication of all those who support the RNLI. Fund raising is one obvious form of support but there is also another 'support' in the form of good will and a helpful attitude. I have found a wealth of such support wherever I have been all over the country.

I am firmly convinced that the RNLI is a unique 'charity' in that it provides an essential service to the community.

No other charity is quite in this category.

I hope it will stay that way and I am certain that we shall be able to continue to thrive as long as we go on getting the support we do from lifeboat people all over Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. We are giving our countrymen very good value for money.

I am anxious that the Institution should not just move with the times but that it should continue to be the pace setter in the business of saving life at sea. This has been its hallmark since its earliest days. Today we have in the Arun, the Atlantic 21 and our other modern lifeboats superb craft to take us along towards the twenty-first century.

But technology moves fast and we must make use of every worthwhile new idea so that we can continue to make sure that every pound we raise is really well spent..