KRUGER IN PORTUGUESE TERRITORY.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10763, 17 September 1900, Page 5

KRUGER IN PORTUGUESE TERRITORY.

If Portugal had been as fully alive to its responsibilities under international law during the greater part of the war as it has j been during the past two months .or so, it is probable that the campaign -would have ended long ago, through the inability of the Boers to keep the field. It has been well known that through the "back door to the Transvaal/ as Delagoa, Bay has been so well termed, have poured munitions of war, supplies of all kinds, and large numbers of mercenaries acd volunteers. Latterly the Portuguese Government awoke to this fact, or had their attention, forcibly drawn to it, and they promptly put a stop to itj dismissing all the customs authorities at Lorenzo Marquez, whose corrupt practices made it possible for Kruger to import all he wanted for the needs of his burghers on commando. The latest proof of Portugal's determination not to allow her territory to be made the base of operations against) a friendly Power is? given by her treatment of the distinguished refugee, who now resides, a practical prisoner, in the house of the Governor of the Portuguese colony. It is within'the power of any neutral State to offer asylum to anyone in Kruger's position—England has done the same mwe than once—bait it is equally within the power of tbe country from which the refugee is fleeing to demand that he shall not conduct or direct any hostile operations from that vantage ground. The position is thus explained by a well-known writer on international law: —

"A State being at liberty to dp whatever it chooss-s within its own territory, without reference to the wishes of other States, so long as its acts aia nob directly injurious to them, it iws the right of receiving and giving 'hospitality or asylum to: emigrants or refugees, whether ov not tfoe former have violated the 'laws of the country in leaving it, and whether tfo« latter are p-ccnsed of political or ordinary Crimes. So ebon as an individual, not being at the- moment in custody, asfcs to be permitted to enter the territory of a, State, the State alone decides whether permission shall foe given ; and when he has been received the State is only hound, tinder its general responsibility, ior acts done wi&hm its jurisdiction, to take such precautions as irny be necessary to prevent him "from doing Jiarm, by placing 'him, for instance, under surveillance or by interning liim at a distance from the frontier, if there b&, reason to believe that his presence is causing serious danger to the country from which h© has fled. On the failure of measures of this kind, a rigfofc arisej on the part of the threatened State to require (his ■ expulsion, so that d* may ba freed from danger • but under no circumstances can it exact his surrender."