In Korea with Marquis Ito

by George Trumbull Ladd

[99] “Abnormal,” i. e., from the point of view of what would be expected from minds of a higher degree of culture and of self-control.

[100] With regard to the personnel of the Korean members of this commission, the head was Yi Sung-sol, who had formerly been a Cabinet Councillor. With him were associated Yi Chun-yong, a Judge of the Supreme Court, and Yi Wi-chong, who was at one time secretary to the Foreign Legation at Russia. The two former seem to have taken the Siberian route to St. Petersburg, where they arrived about April 20th, and were met there by Yi Wi-chong. The Russian Government, being at that time negotiating a treaty with Japan which was to recognize in most explicit terms the Japanese Protectorate over Korea, and give to it a “free hand” in the management of Korean affairs, naturally enough, gave no encouragement to the Koreans or to their “foreign friend.”

In view of the large sum of money which, according to rumor at the time, the Emperor contributed to this purpose, it seems scarcely credible that the Korean delegates should feel compelled at The Hague “to stay at a low-class hotel where the meals cost about 50 sen” (or 25 cents in gold), as the cable despatch reports. No less a sum than 240,000 yen was subsequently traced to expenditure upon this futile scheme; and 100,000 yen additional was suspected on good grounds. In addition to this, as the event proved, it cost the Emperor his crown.

[101] It should be understood that the proposal of Count Inouye did not contemplate taking the Korean Emperor prisoner and carrying him off by force to Japan. It expressed simply the belief on the Count’s part that the shortest way of making Korea accept Japan’s guidance was to cause the Emperor to become acquainted with Japan by personal observation.

[102] The mixture of ignorance and craft of which the ex-Emperor is capable was illustrated in a humorous way by his inquiry of Marquis Ito whether the Japanese Government would not undertake the arrest and punishment of his own emissaries at The Hague! The reply was, of course, that Japan could no more do such a thing in Holland than Korea in Japan.

[103] This double policy of soliciting advice and help from Marquis Ito, as his most true and powerful friend, while acting contrary to the advice when given and rendering the help difficult or impossible, has characterized the Emperor throughout in his relations with the Marquis.

[104] It was subsequently reported that the number of Koreans injured during the disturbances of this Friday was 210; since the majority of these had bullet wounds and the Japanese police were not armed with rifles, the conclusion is inevitable that most of these casualties were occasioned by the firing upon the crowd of the mutinous Korean soldiers.

[105] These quotations are from the article, the publication of which was followed by the incident already narrated ([p. 355, note]). This example is typical of the temper and methods of the anti-Japanese leaders and their foreign friends.

[106] This is perhaps the place to deny, authoritatively and finally, that Marquis Ito procured, counselled, or even gave consent to, the act of abdication. Indeed, the members of the Residency-General, and the Japanese in Seoul generally, who approved of the more strenuous measures to be taken against Korea, regretted to have the abdication take place. To use the expression of one of them: “It dulled the edge of the Japanese sword.”

[107] It should be understood that this office is the most important and influential of all the Korean offices, so far as private transactions with the Emperor are concerned. Now Pak Yong-hio, after a life of idleness and debauchery in Japan, whither he had fled some years before, and where he had been supported by the kindness of Japanese and Korean friends, had recently been pardoned and allowed to return to Korea. In petitioning for permission to return, Pak dwelt in pathetic terms on his “home-sickness,” and expressly promised in the future to refrain from political intrigue. But he had scarcely set foot on the soil of Korea before he began a most dishonest and disgraceful course of political intrigue. A little more than twenty-four hours after his pseudo-appointment as Minister of the Imperial Household, the Cabinet Ministers ordered his arrest, and he was subsequently condemned to be punished with eighty lashes and banished for life to the Island of Quelpart. Such are the vicissitudes of Korean political careers when most free from foreign influence!