229 Chapter 229: Declaration of War

On July 31, 1907, the Kingdom of Portugal officially responded, stating that they would not hand over any Portuguese fishermen and insisted that the Portuguese fishermen had no responsibility in the conflict.

This decision by the Portuguese government caused a huge uproar among the European public.

Europeans could not believe that, in the presence of evidence and witnesses, the Portuguese would still stubbornly deny the responsibility of their fishermen in the conflict and even brazenly protect the criminals.

Even Arthur did not expect that the Portuguese would be so stubborn and would steadfastly maintain their position despite the clearly unfavorable European public opinion.

However, this turned out to be a good thing for Australasia. If the Portuguese government had quickly compromised, Australasia would not have had an excuse to intervene in Portuguese Timor.