The Columbus Journal

WILL TAKE A VOTE

BOERS ALLOWED TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS OF PEACE.

LEADERS CONFER AT PRETORIA

Action Decided After Two Conferences with Kitchener and Milner

British Refuse to Grant an Armistice.

LONDON, April 19.—The government leader, A. J. Balfour, in the house of commons yesterday made the following important statement:

"After two conferences between Lord Milner, the British high commissioner of South Africa, and Lord Kitchener and the Boer delegates at Pretoria, Lord Kitchener while refusing to grant an armistice, on military grounds, has agreed to give facilities for the election and meeting of representatives of the various Boer commands to consider the position. The Boer leaders have, therefore, left Pretoria to carry out this plan."

Mr. Balfour added that it was not expected that communication between the British and Boer leaders would be resumed in less than three weeks' time.

Mr. Balfour's statement made a generally favorable impression.

It was argued among the members that the action of the Boer leaders demonstrates that at any rate a majority of the delegates favor the acceptance of the suggested British peace terms.

The submission of the question to a plebiscite of the burghers is according to Boer law, which requires leaders of armed forces in the field to take the opinion of their followers in concluding peace.

It is officially asserted that the continental statements to the effect that the Boer leaders went to Pretoria at the suggestion of the British authorities are absolutely unfounded. The action of the Boers was entirely spontaneous, and this is regarded here as the best evidence of a genuine desire to bring about a settlement by peaceful negotiations, and as being indicative of the character of the advice which will be given to the burghers by the leaders, who are now returning to their various commands.

THE HAGUE, April 19.—A. Z. W. Weizmarens, the Boer delegate, said that he had no knowledge whatever of any particulars regarding the South African peace negotiations, nor of the report published in Amsterdam to the effect that the negotiations had been broken off.