FREEMEN OF LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 11

FREEMEN OF LONDON.

DOMINIONS' PREMIERS. IMPOSING CEREMONY. MR. COATES' MOVEMENTS. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright./ (Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, November 19. A return to old-time pageantry attended the conferring of the Freedom of London at the Guildhall on Mr. J. G. Coates, Prime Minister of New Zealand, General Hertzog (South Africa), and Mr. W. S. Monroe (Newfoundland). The guests included the Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Arthur of Connaught, Mr. L. S. Amery, the Commissioners and Agents-General for the Dominions, and the members of the conference. The City Lands Committee received the Prime Ministers and conducted them, preceded by the City Marshal, undersheriffs, town clerk and aldermen, and escorted by the sword-bearer and macebearer, to the dais, where the Lord Mayor, Sir Rowland Blades, and the sheriffs of the city welcomed them. The town clerk, gowned and bewigged, read the Order of the Common Council, directing the presentation of -the Freedom of the City in a gold box to the recipients. I A charming little girl presented most of the prominent ladies present with beautiful bouquets of roses. Mr. J. G. Coates will leave London next Tuesday for Edinburgh, where he will receive the freedom of the city, and the honorary University degree of Doctor of Laws on Wednesday, afterwards attending a municipal reception and a University dinner. He will inspect the North British locomotive works, and Beardmore's works at Glasgow on Thursday, returning to London on Friday. On Monday 29, he will receive the freedom of Stoke-on-Trent and inspect the potteries. The freedom of Sheffield will be conferred and various works visited on November 30. Later, Mr. Coates will make a tour of the battlefields where the New Zealanders fought in France.