 Since the institution of protecting power had not been formalized by treaty, disputes arose over the protecting power's rights and responsibilities.In the Second Boer War, the British Empire selected the United States to be its protecting power, but the Boers refused to allow the U.S. to transmit funds from the British government to prisoners of war.The Netherlands, acting as the protecting power for the Boer Republics, was also unable to secure an agreement to exchange the names of prisoners of war.