Editorial Comment.
The great event of the month has been the crowning victory of the Japanese over the Russian fleet. The details of the fight are now at hand and enough is known to demonstrate that the Russian fleet was a mere man of straw, to be blown over by the first wind. When we think of the tons of printers ink that have been expended upon a minute description of every movement of this doomed armada from the time it left the Baltic Sea until it was swept away like a mere cob-web by the Japanese navy there seems to be a grim humor about the whole thing. It was a tragic comedy! The thought of the doomed men who went down in this forlorn hope is inexpressibly sad. They were trying to do their duty as they saw it; but when we look at this event as a war measure and see how totally the Russians misconceived of the prowess and the skill of the Japanese we can only say that Russia is lacking in the first essential of war—a knowledge of the forces that she must contend against.
The Japanese command of the sea is now assured so far as Russia is concerned and this will put an end to all speculation as to whether Japan will be permitted to carry out her plans in Korea unmolested. This is a severe disappointment to many Koreans but it may prove best for the peninsula after all. After the strain and stress of war has been removed and the Japanese authorities have time to examine the Korean question in all its bearings, it is reasonable to hope that they will see fit to arrange for the proper jurisdiction of their people in this country. In spite of the views of some extremists we believe that affairs may be so arranged here that the latter state of Korea and of Koreans will be better than the former one.
We see from the Times of London that Dr. Morrison’s recent brief visit to Korea led him to make such optimistic statements, that that influential periodical judges Japan’s work in Korea to be superior to the work of England in Egypt. But we would like to inquire what Japan has done for the common people of Korea that is any way comparable with England’s work for the Fellahin of Egypt. We would not for a moment disparage the splendid work that Japan has done along the line of railway construction and of general trade in Korea but when anyone reports the condition of affairs here in such terms that England’s peaceful achievement’s in Egypt and India seem to be thrown into the shade, then we are compelled to interpose a decided negative. Are the people of Egypt governed better than before the English occupation? Incomparably better. But the Koreans are governed no better than before, if as well. The great public works put through solely for the benefit of the people of Egypt have absolutely no counterpart whatever in this country. The railway was a war measure which will benefit the people of Korea, but such help was a secondary consideration entirely.
One good result of this great victory is that the state of harrowing uncertainty in which the more conservative officials of Korea were plunged has been cleared up. They know now definitely who their masters are to be and they can prepare as best they may to accept the inevitable with good grace.
There are so many rumors circulating that one can hardly put confidence in the statement of any proposed reform in Korea until after the actual event, but we hope that there is more than the ordinary amount of truth in the report that Japanese police are to be stationed in each of the prefectures of Korea. If this means a court of appeal to which Koreans can bring cases of ill treatment with some hope of redress, a very important step in advance will have been taken. Whatever happens to the official ranks of Korea, we protest that the common people should be left unmolested and that their personal liberty and their property rights should not only not be impaired but, under the influence of the more enlightened power of Japan, they should be more carefully preserved than they ever have been under purely native control. American sympathy for Japan is based upon the belief that Japan stands for the “square deal,” and Americans believe the justice of Japan’s contention in this present war is based upon Russia’s departure from this principle. Whatever America’s good will may or may not mean to Japan, it will be lost if in the flush of victory the latter should take undue advantage of their power to despoil the Korean people of their territory either by seizure or by forced sale. Such acts have been going on all about us, but it is the hope of Japan’s well-wishers that the Japanese authorities will repudiate such actions and put themselves on record as being unalterably determined to give the common people of this country a “square deal.”
The appearance on June 3rd of the first number of the weekly Seoul Press is a matter on which foreign residents in Seoul and every other portion of Korea should be congratulated. It is published by the firm known as the Seoul Press of which Mr. J. W. Hodge is the manager. No intimation is given in the first number as to the personnel of the management of this weekly but we are pleased to learn from the editorial column that “Our little paper will be run on a strictly honest and independent basis, and will be the tool of no particular party, but maintain itself on sound journalistic lines and principles.” The editor invites all who are of a literary turn of mind to make use of his columns and to endeavor to make the paper a success. We trust that our new contemporary will not be disappointed in his plan and that he will have the hearty support of the reading, the writing and the advertising portions of our foreign community.
We feel sure that this publication will meet a very decided need in our community and the fact that it is not a party organ nor committed to any faction makes it doubly valuable. We shall expect to see facts published, whoever may be pleased or displeased thereby. Almost all the news that foreign papers in Japan get about Korea is taken from the reports in native papers, from Japanese reporters in Korea. They thus get but one side of the story. The world wants to know what is being done in Korea not mere statements of plans and theories. Every effort which the Japanese authorities or private citizens put forth for the benefit of the Korean people should be clearly and fully stated and full acknowledgement should be made, and if there are evils which need to be remedied they should be, in a kindly way, brought to the notice of the public so that an intelligent opinion can be formed as to the exact situation here. Public opinion is a mighty agency either for good or ill, but the only way it can be legitimately used is by feeding it upon cold, hard facts. That is what makes the difference between public opinion in England, and in Russia. So we hope that this new periodical will hunt assiduously for facts, and give them to us. We would rather have one column of facts about Korea than ten columns of clippings from abroad. For this reason we are pleased to see that the management of the Seoul Press intends to increase gradually its staff of reporters and correspondents throughout the peninsula.
We wish this journalistic venture all success. The past ten years of Korean history are strewn with wrecks of similar ventures but we trust the time has now come when something permanent can be undertaken; and when in about 1970 the citizens of Seoul look over the back files of the Seoul Press, which will then be in its sixty-fifth year, they will say with pride “This is the first genuine foreign newspaper in Korea.”