PRESIDENT Elizabeth Ostroumoff invited Margaret James to light the candle of friendship for Annelise Larsen, President of Sonderborg, Denmark.

Speaker Robert Lyne, of the Anti Smuggling Drug Squad at Birmingham Airport, gave a very enlightening and at times humorous talk on this very serious subject.

He explained that sniffer dogs were being used more and more in an attempt to curb the big business of drug smuggling.

Members were surprised to hear that the cost of training a sniffer dog was in the region of £35,000 per dog, hence the need for more funding.

However, when he explained how lethal and addictive drugs, especially heroin, can be, everyone would agree that anything which can be done to prevent them coming into the country is a must.

Pat Pritchard gave the vote of thanks and wished Mr Lyne every success in his team's efforts.

Members were told the next association conference would be held in April in Glasgow. Names were taken for the district meeting in Solihull in November.

Five members had attended the launching of RNLB Inner Wheel II, which had been the club's millennium project and which had cost nearly £1 million.

All felt it had been a worthwhile project as was borne out by the photographs of the lifeboat.

The members will certainly look out for it when visiting Poole.