APPEAL FOR FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 144, 21 June 1922, Page 16

APPEAL FOR FUNDS

BRITISH AND. FOREIGN SAILORS'" SOCIETY

104 TH ANNIVERSARY.

SIR. JAMES' ALLEN AT THE MANSION HOUSE.

CPEOU OUR OWN CORRBSPONMNK)

LONDON, 2nd May.

■ Sir James Baddeley, tha liord ,Mayor, presided at the annual meeting of the British and Foreign Sailors' Sooiety, held in the Mansion House yesterday. The Archbishop of Wales, Lord Radstoek, the Dowager Lady Dimgdale, Admiral Sir Martyn Jerrani, the Eev. C. M. Rice, and-.Sir James Allen were the speakers. The Lord Mayor said it was impossible to over-estimate the popularity of the British sailor, who had always been a hero in the hearts and minds of Till classes in this country. During the war the Navy and the Mercantile Marine 'saved the nation from starvation and surrender. No fewer than 42,000 victims of submarine warfare from 1264 torpedoed ships were succoured at the society's homes in English and foreign ports. _ The perils and privations of a sailor's life were not confined to his work ou the high seas. They were even more numerous and far graver on shore. The society's homes and ostels greatly counteracted the pernicious influence.-of the crimps and landsharks who infested our. seaport towns, and whose sole idea was to trap and . ruin the sailor, both morally, physically, and financially. The society stepped in and gave the sailor,. as he came ashore ' with his pay in his pocket, a home where he could get good food, comfortable lodging, healthy recreation, and elevating social influence. The general secretary (Mr. Herbert E. Barker) said that at last year's meeting special emphasis was laid on the very serious financial position of the society, and the big overdraft at the bank. That burden still remained, but the position was improving. The industrial and general conditions had been against a rei sponse to their appeal for funds as gen- | erous as they hoped for, but they had j faith that the people would not let this great work suffer, and they were confidently carrying on, i even entering into further liabilities for the" purpose of serv--ing- the sailors' needs. DEBT OF £28,000. The gross incomo in 1921 was £119,000, an increase of £3000 on the 1920 income. The expenditure in 1921 was '£131,000, a decrease of £28,000. The balance against I them for the year's work in 1920 was £43,- ---| 000, whilst the balance against them for ! the year 1921 was £12,000. This" snowed that the aim of making income and expenditure meet might one day become ah accomplished fact. The accumulated debt was, roughly, £28,000, not an .impossible burden to remove, so long as the British people bore in mind. what the Empire owed its sailors. It must be remembered that a great deal of the expenditure in recent years had been for the purchase and erection of buildings, and the unfet- | tere'd value of properties and capital assets amounted to about £250,000. WORK IN NEW ZEALAND. The Sailors' "Rest at Naples was officially opened in February, and already good work for the sailors had been done there. They had undertaken a npw departure in Ndw Zealand by'tho appointment of Miss Myrie Weymbuth\as secretary for the Dominion. Tho Governor (Admiral Lord Jellicoe) iiad consented to be the first president of tho Dominion's National Council, and they were hoping to have a thoroughly representative body to encourage, foster, and develop the interest of the people out there in work for sailors. Tho new rest house at Ipswich, opened a year ago, had proved of great service. At Plymouth 15,000 sailors slept in. tho hostel during- tho year. _At Southampton they I contemplated obtaining a property opposite the dock gates, and this would be adapted for the purposes of a Sailors' Rest. Tho cost of the building-.and alterations -would bo approximately. £7000 Ito £8000. j The Prince of Wales's ' Sea Training Hostel for Boys was- rapidly becoming j well-known among the principal shipping I companies. The reports from the- ships' officers were- very gratifying. The isecretary then gave come interesting details, of tho multifarious work of the Samaritan and Welfare section. During tho year, in London alone, they dealt with no fewer than 4124 men of 41 nationalities othor than English. They had afloat through' the Ocean Libraries' Department no fewer than 600 library cabinets, each containing a selection of books such as sailors appreciate. "You may have every confidence in the control of our. eociety," tho secretary concluded, "for you have aboard of directors thoroughly alivo to tho highest needs of tho jailor, and zealous for the high reputation of tho society. With Lord Radstoek as president, Mr. G. S. F. . Ec'watds as acting-chairman, Sir Frederick Green as treasurer, Sir Ernest Glover <aa chairman of tho Finance Committee, the Rev. E. F. Mackenzie as chairman of the General Purpose Committee. Lady Dimsdale as president of the. Ladies' Guild, and a body of loyal, keen, and devoted colleagues on tho staff, I am sure you, may feel every confidence- that the Society is wisely directed." A MARITIME DOMINION. -Sir Jam.es Alleja said he had accepted with great readiness the secretary's invitation to speak, because the society and its, work had his entire sympathy, and-be-cause it seemed to him .right that ono of tho _ representatives of the farthest Dominion should liave tho opportunity of joining in an expression of.sympathy for tho work the' socioty was carrying on for the .sailors. Ho was very glad to hear that Mies Weymouth. had been appointed or-' ganismg secretary for New Zealand. Sho would find in tho. Dominion a very sympathetic peoplo right from tho Governor, Lord JellieoG, downward. As a matter ot tact, tho people of New Zealand had an inherent love of the sea.'' It had como down to thorn from old times. Here especially for tho benefit of the Archbishop ol Wales, -who had spokon of tho seafaring prowess of his country, Sir James told the story of Bishop Selwyn, who steered a schooner of tho old days' into a dangerous port. Lost in admiration, the skipper of tho schooner remarked: "Thou hast brought my schooner so Avell into harbour that almost thou ptirsuadest me to bo a Christian." The Hiffh Commissioner then proposed tho resolution -with which he was entrusted : "That this meeting, being convinced o£ tho necessity £or tho continuance of the society's activities to the! fullest extent, warmly commends the appeal for funds to all who can contribute, and hopes the-, amount of £20,000 needed to repay the overdraft from the bankers will be speedily raised." "It is unthinkable," he said, "that in a. British community, or any community, a society like- this, which seeks to supply tho spiritual, intellectual, and physical needs of 6eafaring men, should find any one of its activities crippled for lack of funds. The men of the Na-vy and Mercantile Marine mean 6o much to us; they mean so much to mo and to those who come from far-away Now Zealand. We think of our trade, our commerce, our safety nationally, the safety of the prestige and honour which is ours, and contemplate with. pride, as we have a right to do, tho tradition built up in the long years of the past, and we are wholly in sympathy and wholly, in support of a eociety which is doing- this splendid work. The society is a tried and. trusted organisation. It is not neiv. It is proved. It has tho patronago of tho King and Queen and of Queen Alexandra, and, in addition tvs vicepresidents, I sec a long lisl; of names of men of wealth both in the Motherland and tho Dominions who sympathise with tho work sin<t aims of Hie British and Foreign Sailors' Society. It (deserves llio sympathy, it deserves tho helf> of flip ueol>le, whatever may bo thuir politics or life. BRITISH SAILORS IN BRITISH SHU'S. . "Speakuiir from the experience I have had bctoi-s l-ha w»f and tlunnsj- tho wut,

is to continue as it is f then British ships must be manned by British Bailors. We have only to cast; our minds back to August, 1914, and follow the events which took place then. One realised that the transport of our men who were coming to help tha Mother Country, and the transport of those other things which were brought across the sea in those dangerous times could only be done by British ships manned by British sailors. I£ this had not been so, could we have relied • upon the safe transport o£ our troops and produoera?" . ' INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. But the society, continued Sir James, was not merely a British society. It had broader interests. It was cosmopolitan in its ideals. Although he was aware that they were nationalists to a very great extent, there was an ideal even greater than that. If by aome means the world was to be brought to see that peace was maintained and that the world was anything like it ought to be, there should bo good feeling and amity between the nations. This society then, _in its sympathy with the needs of foreign sailors, was doing an actiVe work to prepare the ground at any rate for a deeper understanding between the nations of the world, s The High Commissioner concluded by recounting what Now Zealand had contributed to King George's Fund, and by referring to the £180,000, which the farmers had donated out of their profits for the benefit of the widows and orphans of sailors who had fallen in the war. Admiral Sir Martyn Jen-am seconded the proposal, and said that as a naval officer and a Justice of the Peace of a naval port, ho could state that naval ports would compare most favourably in the | state of the streets with many inland towns. The sailor was a good husband, a lover of children, and a great friend to animals, and nowadays, when afloat, he waa well fed, well paid, and well housed. . Lady Dimsdale, presenting the report of tho Ladies' Guild, said that it had collected a record sum of £2568. A cum of £911 waa raised for the Prince of Wales's Sea Hostel. Owing to the Court mourning, Princess Louise, 'Duchess of Argyll, would not be able to open the "Chart and Compass ' Bazaar at the Mansion House on the following Thursday, but Countess Beatty had kindly consented to paiorm the ceremony, ■ and had stated in her letter that Earl Beatty might accompany