Would Not Have Believed Myself Capable of Such Enthusiasm As I Have Experienced at Sight of Jewish C

I would not have believed myself capable of such enthusiasm as I have experienced to-day at the sight of this Jewish City, the Marquess of Reading declared, speaking to-day at a reception given in his honour in the Tel Aviv municipal Building, after the conferment on him of the Freedom of the City, the previous recipients of which include the late Lord Balfour, the author of the Balfour Declaration, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the “father” of Jewish Colonisation in Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner of Palestine, the late Dr. Asher Ginsberg (Achad Ha’am), the “father” of Spiritual Zionism, and Professor Albert Einstein.

The reception was of a magnitude and enthusiasm equalled only by those accorded to Lord Balfour and Baron Edmond de Rothschild when all Tel Aviv turned out to do them honour when they were numbered among its Freemen.

Lord Reading paid a tribute in his speech to the Jewish love of liberty and of independence of thought and lauded Jewish education, which, he said, is instilling the same qualities in Jewish children so that when they grow up to be men and women they will be imbued with the same spirit. Avoiding any direct political references, Lord Reading did say, however, that the British arm extends far, yet the Jewish National Home under the Balfour Declaration is not an insignificant enterprise and it is an enterprise, he declared, to which Great Britain must and will stick. One thing to which the Jews are entitled, he added, is the absolute guarantee of the security of their lives and property.