REUTER’S TELEGRAMS.

Kumara Times, Issue 1388, 14 March 1881, Page 2

REUTER’S TELEGRAMS.

British and foreign. London, March 10,

In the House of Commons to-night a question was put to the Premier regarding the armistice which had been declared between the Boers and the British troops in the TransVaal. Mr Gladstone, in reply* said although it had only been agreed to suspend hostilities for one week it had been understood between Sir G. Colley and the Boer commander, that a longer armistice Could be proclaimed should the state of the negotiations fot peace render such necessary. Information has been received to-day from Ireland that an important seizure of military weapons, consisting of one hundred pikes, had been made by the police at Eanturk, in the County of Cork. Parnell has issued a manifesto, in which he exhorts the Irish voters in England to resist the Legislative measures of the Liberals to the utmost, and to oppose the return of further members of the party to Parliament. Several further arrests of suspected persons have been made in Ireland under the Coercion Act. March 11. The House of Commons has dismissed the appeal made on behalf of the convict, Thomas Castro, alias Arthur Orton, against the judgment of the Court of Appeal in June last, in discharging the writ of error which it was thought to prove against the Court of Queen’s Bench in 1874, in awarding two cessive sentences of penal servitude on the two counts'of the indictment. The fact of an armistice having been agreed to with the Boers in the Transvaal is receiving much adverse criticism in the Press, and in political and military circles. The impression having got abroad that the armistice was sought hy the British, a complete disavowal of the statement that Sir Evelyn Wood had asked that hostilities should be suspended, has, however, been communicated to the Press by Mr Gladstone, who moreover states that although no definite information is to hand as to the exact circumstances which led to the armistice, he believes, the proposal for the same originated with President Brand, of the Free State, who has for some time been using every endeavour to bring about peace. The Divisional Court at Westminster* has disallowed Bradlaugh’s demurrer to plaintiff’s plea in the action, Clarke v. Bradlaugh, to recover penalties of j£soo each from defendant for sitting and voting in the House of Commons, without having first taken the oath prescribed by the Act of 1866. Constantinople, March 11. The negotiations which has been proceeding for the past three weeks between the Ambassadors of the Powers in this city, and the Porte with a view to determine the long standing frontier dispute, are likely to have some result. It is now understood that there are signs that the Porte will be persuaded to agree to a conference for the settlement of the Turco-Greek difficulty. Capetown, March 10. News is to hand to-day from Basutoland that the negotiations for peace which were proceeding between the Colonial commander and the Basutos having failed, the armistice has now entirely ceased, and hostilities between the two forces been resumed.