The argument for arbitration has received another and a severe
blow. The Portuguese Government, it will be re- membered, granted to an American, Colonel McMurdo, the right to build a railway in Delagoa Bay, and it was commenced by a British company. President Kruger, however, wanted a railway of his own " not under British control," and under the sharpest pressure from him the Portuguese Government demanded that the railway should be finished within an im- possible time, revoked the concession, and seized the works. The facts are not denied, and in June, 1891, a Swiss Arbitra- tion Tribunal began to assess the damages. They have wasted nine years over their work, and on March 29th their award granted to the claimants £612,560, with interest at 5 per cent., from June 25th, 1889, making £950,000 in all, being about half what all reasonable experts expected, but much more than Portugal is able to raise. Clearly the dominant idea of the Continent that England is not entitled to justice because she is so rich has once more made its weight felt in an arbitration. There is nothing to be done, of course, except to bow to the award, and in future to regard arbitration in its true light as a method of giving way.
