cally that any
incident whatever had followed Portugal's notification to the Transvaal.
When further interrogated, the Minister declared that the English troops
had been granted permission to use the railway inland from Beira upon
the plea of treaty rights already possessed by Great Britain. No power,
he asserted, had protested except the South African Republic. It was
promised that the Government would later justify its action in granting
the permission by producing the documents showing the right of England
to the privilege, but it was not considered convenient at that time to
discuss the question.[19]

[Footnote 19: London Times, April 21, 1900, p. 7, col. 3.]

The protest of the Transvaal against the alleged breach of neutrality on
the part of Portugal was without effect, and this was the only means the
Republic had of declaring itself. To have entered upon hostile action
against Portugal at that time would have had only one result, the
stoppage of all communication with the outside world by way of Delagoa
Bay. The British forces were sent into Rhodesia, and though the
subsequent part they played in the war was not important the purpose of
the expedition was admitted. It was to cut off any possibility of a
retreat northward into British territory by the Boer forces which were
being driven back by the English advance upon Pretoria. The British
military plan was that General Carrington should march with his forces
and reach Pretoria from the north at the same time that General Roberts
reached that point from the south.[20] Thus, the end for which the
troops were to be used was not to quell an insurrection of the natives
in Rhodesia, as was alleged, but to incorporate the expedition into the
regular campaign of the war against the Republics. This being the case,
the contractual grounds upon which the English Government claimed the
right of passage should have been beyond question in order to furnish a
justification for Portugal or for England in what is viewed by
international law writers of the present day as a distinct breach of
neutrality. When the expedition was sent out the statement was made that
England was merely availing herself of existing treaty rights, but it
was felt necessary to add that the action was not illegal as was that of
the Boers in making Delagoa Bay their virtual base earlier in the war.
And on May 31, in legalizing the proceeding, the Cabinet at Lisbon also
felt impelled to say that the Portu