[76] It is significant to notice in this connection that previous to his several commissions from the Korean Emperor, this writer held a quite different view from that which he afterward advocated with regard to the underlying principle of all the recent relations between the two countries. In the same article he says: “The present chaotic state of the national finances and of popular discontent, show something of what Russian influence has accomplished in Korea; and the people are coming to realize the fact. They are passionately attached to the theory of national ‘independence.’ We say theory advisedly. This word ‘independence’ is a sort of fetich to which they bow, but they think that independence means liberation from outside control alone, forgetting that genuine independence means likewise a liberation from evil influences within, and that liberty, so far from being carte blanche to do as one pleases, is in truth the apotheosis of law.”
[77] Among the many falsehoods told by the Koreans and their “Foreign Friends,” in their endeavors to excite pity for themselves, and, possibly, interference with the Japanese Administration in Korea, none is more ridiculous than that the latter were reviving the use of torture. It should be borne in mind that, previous to the Convention of July, 1907, which followed upon the promulgation of this and other more important false charges by the commissioners to The Hague Conference, the Japanese Residency-General’s power did not extend to the interference with the execution of the Korean law upon Korean criminals. Preliminary examination by beating with a stick was then legal; according to credible current report it was practiced upon the vice-Minister of Education, when, during my visit to Korea, he was accused of having contributed money toward effecting the assassination of the Ministry (see [p. 51]). All this is quite different from the retort which might be made to critics from the United States to remember the practice of “water-cure” in the Philippines, etc.
[78] Quoted, as are the following paragraphs bearing quotation marks, from the pamphlet prepared under the supervision of the Resident-General, and published in Seoul, January, 1907, on Administrative Reforms in Korea. [These quotations are made exactly, and without attempt to change the language in accordance with our use of legal terms.]
[79] The following incident illustrates the habitual behavior of the Korean Daily News, edited by Mr. Bethell, in both an English and a native edition. Dr. Jones, one of the most faithful and useful of the Missionary body in Korea, had previously incurred the bitter enmity of this paper by publicly announcing (see [p. 61 f.]) the intention to assist the Resident-General in his plans, so far as his own work as a missionary permitted, for the up-raising of Korea. At the time when the Korean troops, in a wholly unprovoked way, fired upon the crowd in the streets of Seoul, Dr. Jones published in the Seoul Press an account of what he himself saw. The account was not accompanied by any harsh criticism of the conduct of the troops. But “shortly afterwards a Korean attached to the vernacular paper visited him and, attacking him fiercely, denounced him as an enemy of Korea. This was followed by a savage attack in the Korean edition of the News, giving an entirely false account of what Dr. Jones had done and said. It was in fact an invitation to murder.” Dr. Jones at once appealed to the American Consul-General and he to the British. The editor was forced to retract and apologize, but this by no means compensated for the damage his article had done.
[80] This fact has been clearly proven by papers found on the body of Yi-Sei-chik, when he was afterward arrested and detained at headquarters, as well as by his personal statements.
[81] This serious charge was made by the writer and published to a friendly nation, on the basis of no personal knowledge, not to say careful investigation, and after casual conversation with a small number of witnesses who belong to the class peculiarly liable to be deceived both as to facts and as to causes of such alleged incidents.
[82] Deplorable, on account of its effect, direct and indirect, upon the Koreans, upon Marquis Ito’s efforts at reform, and upon the missionary cause in Japan as well as Korea.
[83] It has been asserted that the value of the land staked off by the Japanese military authorities near Seoul was 6,000,000 yen. As the result of a “painstaking and impartial investigation” it was found that, at the highest market price, this land would not have brought more than 750,000 to 1,000,000 yen. The Korean way in such matters is well illustrated by the experience of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Seoul, who, when one small piece of land was needed to complete their site, were obliged to invoke an official order preventing the sale to any other party; and even then paid a price probably two or three times its true market value. Compare also what is said, [p. 98 f.], about the Pyeng-yang affair.
[84] What is the state of the case in certain portions of the West is truthfully told in the following paragraph quoted from a popular journal: “In the matter of cheating Indians and acquiring public lands in ways which bear all the ethical aspects of theft, there is no public or private morality either in Oklahoma or any other of those Western States where Indians and public lands continue to exist.”
[85] On one occasion the British and Chinese Ministers jointly urged the payment of indemnity in the case of two Chinamen, one a British protégé, who had been injured in a fight with tax-collecting officials at a place to which Chinese junks were in the habit of resorting. The British protégé had died of his wounds, both he and his companion having been confined after the fight in the magistrate’s yamen. The Korean local officials contended that only one person had been killed—namely, the wounded Chinaman. When confronted with the fact that, according to their own report, there was a dead Chinaman in the yamen the morning after, they replied that this man was not in the fracas at all; he had merely crawled into the yamen during the night, and had died of some unknown disease. The picture of this shrewd Celestial going to the yamen to die, apparently for the purpose of fraudulently foisting an incriminating corpus delicti upon the innocent Korean official, did not appeal to the British Minister, and he got his indemnity.