Letters received by the Institution, and articles in the press, have shown that many people think the Ministry of Labour is taking from the Life-boat Service for the fighting forces men whom the Institution wishes to keep. That is not so. The Ministry allows the Institution to keep its coxswains, second-coxswains and motor-mechanics, and any member of a crew without whom it would not be possible" to man the life-boat. Some of the stations are having to work with smaller crews, but both the Institutian and its stations accept this as inevitable in time of war. The 'Institution is very careful not to ask for any men whom it can spare, and no requests which it has made to keep men have been refused by the Ministry..