Meanwhile, however, in May 1903, prior to the decision of the Korean Government in the matter, the prefect of Wi-ju reported the concentration of Russian troops at An-tung for the purpose of crossing the Yalu. A few days later, a detached party of forty of these men crossed the stream, halting on a small island in mid-river to discard their uniforms, so that they might enter Yong-an-po in private clothes. From Yong-an-po they moved to Yong-chyön, near Wi-ju, where, accompanied by one hundred Chinese and eighty Koreans, they founded a lumber settlement, buying seventeen houses, with twelve acres of land attached, in the name of two of their Korean employés. The presence of the colony was at once objected to by the Korean Government, who threatened M. Pavloff with the rupture of relations if the settlement were not at once withdrawn. M. Pavloff, however, defended the existence of the lumber camp under powers obtained from the Forest Concession of 1896, which, in actuality, had not been re-affirmed at the moment. Early in the next month, June, the magistrate at Yong-chyön reported that another party of Russians had arrived at Yong-an-po, including in all three Russian women, thirty-six men, two hundred Chinese, and many horses. These were reinforced in July by three women and sixty men, for the most part carrying rifles and swords, and who, also, at once bought houses and land.
The action of these people has assumed a specific direction. A few, as though anxious to give colour to their existence as a lumber settlement and in defiance of orders from the Korean local officials, while quite exceeding the clauses of the concession proper, persisted in felling trees on the areas of a prohibited reserve. Meantime the remainder of the party, by no means idle, began the construction of a bund on the Yalu extending over a distance of twenty-one miles, a light railway being laid down for the purpose. In addition to this work developments of a more permanent character were taken in hand; stone buildings appeared, a factory was constructed, and extensive defensive measures adopted. To confirm these indications of Russian occupation of the Yalu reaches, a body of seventy soldiers crossed the river at Cho-san, a second party of eighty men coming over at Pyök-tong. The Russians then proceeded to bring these various scattered “lumber” settlements, into communication, for this purpose erecting a telegraph line between Wi-ju and Yong-an-po. This line, however, the Koreans at once cut down, whereupon the Russians began to lay a submarine cable from Yong-an-po round the coast and up the Yalu River to An-tung in place of the line across country from Yong-an-po to Manchuria. Since the cable projects were important and, together with the settlement at Yong-an-po, much in need of protection, Russia proposed to draft a force of three hundred soldiers into the place. At this date, towards the end of August, the settlement at Yong-an-po had grown into sixty houses with a civil Russian population of seventy citizens. By this time, however, the Japanese Minister at Seoul, Mr. Hayashi, had received the text of the proposed contract between the Korean Government and the Russian Lumber Company. Thereupon, on August 25th, he delivered an ultimatum to the Korean Government. On the same day the Russian Minister went to the Foreign Office and urged that the lease of Yong-an-po be granted. In spite of his urgent appeal, the Minister declared it to be impossible. On the 27th the Russian Minister went again to the Foreign Office at noon, and remained till seven in the evening, but the Minister was ill and did not put in an appearance. The Russian Minister then stated that he would have nothing more to do with the Foreign Minister, but would appeal directly to the Emperor. In his despatch Mr. Hayashi wrote that if the Korean Government were to sign such a lease with the Russian Government, Japan would consider such an act as a direct violation of the treaty between herself and Korea. In this event Japan would consider that diplomatic relations between the two countries were suspended, and she would regard herself free to act for herself in her own interests on the assumption that the whole of the Korean territories had been opened to the world.
The spirited action of the Japanese Minister was not lost upon the Korean Government, who at once issued orders to the prefect of Yong-an-po to restrain the Russians from further encroachment. The efforts of the local officials were, however, of little avail, and by the middle of September, in addition to the colony at Yong-an-po, the settlement at Yong-chyön had increased to one hundred and twenty-eight Chinese huts, with thirteen hundred Chinese, seventy Russians, and twenty tents. Complaints of the high-handed action of the Russians in appropriating the property of the Koreans to their own needs began to arrive in Seoul, and on September 13th came the information that a telegraph line had again been laid between Yong-an-po and the lumber concession on the Yalu. Coupled with the intelligence of this renewed activity was additional, and much more disquieting, information. The Russians had constructed on the elevated ground about the Tu-ryu Harbour a high watch-tower, and were preparing emplacements for three batteries of field artillery. Meanwhile, however, as a counter demonstration to the movement of a company of five hundred Russians under two officers, on October 23rd, who had crossed the Tumen River into Korean territory by night, a Japanese warship dropped anchor in the estuary of the Yalu, in close proximity to Yong-an-po.
I make no apology to my readers for giving in this detailed fashion the history of this little Russian concession. As a chapter of contemporary history I cannot think that my words are of any value, but there are doubtless many who, like myself, prefer to begin in the beginning, and so slowly trace through the developments of any question. In respect of Russian action on the Yalu, therefore, I have endeavoured to do this.
Note.—An-tung is known also as Sha-ho; the Yalu River is known also as the Am-nok River.
CHAPTER XVII
By the wayside—A journey inland to Tong-ko-kai—Inland beauties
The world of politics in Seoul had become of a sudden so profoundly dull, that, ignoring the advice of the weather-wise inhabitants of the capital, I packed my kit, and hiring ponies, interpreters and servants, moved from the chief walled city of the Empire into the wild regions of the interior. My journey lay towards Tong-ko-kai, the German mines, several days’ journey from Seoul. Life, in the capital, is not destitute of that monotony which characterises the Land of the Morning Radiance. But beyond the precincts of the Imperial Palaces, out of sight and hearing of the countless little coteries of Europeans, the contrast between the moving, soft-robed, gentle masses of people who congregate within her gates, and the mountain reaches and valleys of the open country is refreshing. For the moment the pleasure of such an experience ranks high among the joys which life holds.