§ MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)I beg to ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he can communicate to the House full details of all communications which passed between Lord Roberts and any of the Boer generals in reference to negotiations for the conclusion of peace, and a full statement of the causes which prevented the proposed meeting between Lord Roberts and General Botha in June last.
* LORD STANLEYYes, Sir, I will lay the correspondence to-day. I owe the hon. Gentleman and the House an apology, which I take the first opportunity of tendering. In answer to the honourable Member's question interjected during my speech on Friday, I inadvertently stated that I believed the negotiations were stopped owing to the demand for independence. I find on referring to papers, which I had not at hand, that although Lord Roberts endeavoured to meet General Botha's wishes as to an armistice, the arrangement fell through because the armistice proposed by the Boers was one which on military grounds it was impossible to accept.