Field-Marshal Sir Edmund Allenby received the freedom of the City
on Tuesday and was presented with a sword of honour. The conqueror of Palestine made a highly interesting speech, in which he recalled the fine work of the Sixtieth (London) Division under Sir John Shea at Beersheba, before Jerusalem, and in the hard fighting in Gilead in the spring of last year. The Division could not receive fresh drafts from home, owing to the German offensive on the Western Front, and it contained only two London battalions in the final battle of last autumn. But the Indian troops, who filled up the gaps in the Division, inherited its fine fighting tradition. The Sixtieth was given the difficult task of breaking the enemy's line near the coast so that the cavalry might pass, and performed it with astonishing rapidity and thoroughness. The City may be proud of Its new freeman, and of the fighting men of London who did so well under his command.
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