THE BEIRA RAILWAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6794, 14 May 1900, Page 3

THE BEIRA RAILWAY.

It will be of especial interest to our leaders just now to learn the details of tha arrangement by which Por-

tugal allows Britain to land troops and stores at-Beira: aiid send them through her territory to Rhodesia, for the Fourth and Fifth New Zealand Contingents have recently arrived at the East African port and have gone on to join Sir Frederick Cairington's force of Bushmen. Objections were naturally raised by the Boers to this apparent breach of neutrality on the part of Portugal, but at Lisbon on April 3 tha. Minister for Foreign Affairs declared that the transport of British troops hy the BedraUmtali Railway was demanded by Great Britain, and consented to by Portugal, because Great Britain was merely exercising rights secured to her under existing treaties. The present state of war did not abrogate these treaties, which had been concluded before the' war. The explanation rests on the fact that in 1893 the Portuguese Government entered into a tieaty with her Majesty's Government ih which it was specifically agreed that when called upon to do so the Portuguese authorities should allow British troops, arms and ammunition destined for Rhodesia to pass through Beira and the adjacent territory without let or hindrance. During the Matabele rebellion in 1895 the British Government exercised its treaty rights, and several regiments, including the Hussars, were landed at Beira, and despatched to Mashonaland. The landing of Sir F. CjMrington's at that port is not, therefore,, the first time, that a British force, has crossed Portuguese East African territory. It was Dr Jameson who discovered the Pungwe-Beira route to Rhodesia in 1890, Bedra being then only a name '■ and the surrounding country a vast swamp. General Carrington's force, as the cablegrams have informed us, proceeded by railway to Salisbury and is marching to Buluwayo, a distance of 272 miles, by road. Our military expert, it will be remembered, estimated that the force would reach the neighbourhood of Mafeking by the middle of the present month, and subsequent developments tend to prove the correctness of his opinion.