NEUTRAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS IN THE ANGLO-BOER WAR

BY ROBERT GRANVILLE CAMPBELL

1908




PREFACE.

This essay is the outgrowth of work done in the Political Science
Seminary of the Johns Hopkins University and is a portion of a larger
study dealing with the causes of the Anglo-Boer War and the questions of
international law arising during that conflict.

At the beginning of the war the English Government was inclined to view
the contest as one which would not make it necessary to call into
operation the neutrality laws of third parties. It was soon realized,
however, that the condition of insurgency was not broad enough to
sustain the relations between the two Governments. Toward the close of
November Great Britain's declaration with a retroactive effect put the
contest upon a distinctly belligerent basis and accepted the date of the
Transvaal's ultimatum, 5 p.m., October 11, 1899, as the commencement of
the war.

Other Powers which had awaited this announcement with some anxiety at
once declared their attitude toward the war. Among the first to assume
this neutral position was the United States with the announcement that
its attitude would be in accordance with the requirements of the