In Korea with Marquis Ito

by George Trumbull Ladd

It was on Thursday, May 2d, that the Korean Daily News—the paper whose most obvious purpose seemed to be, in its English edition, to foster prejudice against the Japanese and to obstruct the policy of the Resident-General, and in its native edition to mislead the Koreans and excite them to sedition—published the following “telegrams about Korea from American papers” as likely to “prove of local interest” (sic). [It should be remembered that this date was only some ten days after the assassination of the Minister of the Household Department, Mr. Pak Yong-wha, and somewhat more than a month after the attempted assassination of the Minister of War.] “American missionaries writing from Korea recently tell of a most intolerable state of affairs in that country where the Japanese have been acting in such a high-handed manner as to cause even the humble native to revolt. The Emperor is held a prisoner and appears to be in daily terror of his life. Nor have the aggressions of the Japanese been confined to the natives of Korea. Americans, engaged chiefly in mining enterprises, had it plainly demonstrated that Korea is no place for them and that they would better move out. A representative of these mining interests” (the true story of this ‘mining representative’ will be told elsewhere) “is now either at or on his way to Washington to see if they cannot obtain redress from their government. This latest development in the Korean situation, the boycott, will doubtless precipitate matters in Korea.”

These “telegrams,” published May 2d in Seoul, bore date of San Francisco, April 1st. It so happened that Dr. Jones came to my office on the early morning of the date of this publication. Finding that he had not read the article in the Korean Daily News, I called his attention to it; and I then spoke more plainly about the urgent necessity of a change of attitude on the part of the missionaries than I had ever spoken before. It was apparent, I urged, that the negative, non-committal position would no longer suffice. Instead of its being justifiable under the plea of not engaging in politics, the very reverse was true. The missionaries in Korea, either unwittingly or half-willingly, were being used, both in Korea and in the United States, to foster anti-Japanese feeling as supported by exaggerations, falsehoods, and only half-truths. They were thus, I feared, helping to encourage the very worst and most dangerous elements in both countries. There was real danger that, if this course was persisted in, the peaceful policy of Marquis Ito, with its patient and generous effort to promote the development of the Korean people, might be discouraged. And if the mailed fist were invited, or seemed necessary, to maintain the reasonable and unalterable intention of Japan never again to leave Korea to be a prey to foreign intrigues against herself and to the degradation of its own corrupt government, the cause of Christian missions in Korea surely would not fare better than it easily could by establishing friendly relations of co-operation with the existing Protectorate. The events of October, 1895, and of the following years, ought not to be so easily forgotten.

Two days later the following, under the heading of “Marquis Ito and Christian Missionaries,” appeared in the Seoul Press. “His Excellency Marquis Ito received Dr. George Heber Jones and Dr. W. B. Scranton on Thursday afternoon. The work of the churches in Korea was discussed and the visitors assured His Excellency that the reports, reproduced from American papers, claiming that the Christian missionaries were antagonistic to the Resident-General and his policy in Korea, neither represented their personal sentiments nor those of their colleagues; that His Excellency might feel assured of their sincere sympathy and co-operation in all measures looking toward the betterment of the Korean people. The missionaries make it a rule to stand aloof from political matters, finding in the moral and spiritual uplift of the Korean people full scope for activity.”

“His Excellency assured the visitors that he gave no credence to the reports thus circulated, and that he entertained no suspicion nor doubt of the missionaries in Korea. He fully recognized the value of the work they were doing for the moral and spiritual betterment of the Koreans, and wished them every success.”

This public announcement of the establishment of friendly relations between the Marquis Ito and an influential portion of the missionary body in Korea was drawn up in semi-official fashion. The gentlemen who undertook the duty of making the advances toward the Resident-General were convicted—as is every one who comes into anything approaching familiar relations with him—of the complete sincerity of his purpose toward the people of Korea, and of his frank and fair-minded policy toward all foreign interests. The Marquis himself, after the interview, requested that the substance of it might be made known to the public. Each party prepared with care the few words which declared this unselfish alliance between the representative of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, in Korea and these representative teachers of religion, in the common effort to promote the industrial, educational, moral, and religious welfare of a hitherto unhappy nation. Such an alliance—as we may reasonably hope—will contribute to the reputation for wisdom and unselfishness of both parties to it. At any rate, as soon appeared, the immediate results were in the direction of an enlarged future good.

CHAPTER IV
LIFE IN SEOUL (CONTINUED)

The winter and spring of 1907 in Korea were, from the point of view of one interested in this kind of politics, a very lively period, even for a country traditionally accustomed to similar performances. Four attempts at assassination of the Ministry—one of which was successful; daily disclosures of intrigue, plot and counter-plot; revolts against the country magistrates which took the form of refusal to pay taxes, of attacks upon the police, and of highway robbery; plans for plundering the resources of the nation under plausible pretence of schemes for “promoting” the nation’s resources; foolish excitements selfishly fostered by writers for the press who had their own interests to secure; and quite as foolish, but less selfish, endeavors for increase of public welfare, by those benevolently inclined; secret arrangements for the despatch of the unfortunate delegation to the Hague, accompanied by stealings from the impoverished royal treasury to the extent of several hundred thousand yen; and, finally, a change, not only in the personnel of the Ministry but in its very constitution and mode of procedure, which amounted to a bloodless revolution—these and other like events were crowded into this one half-year. Meantime, especially after the return of the Resident-General, the foundations of a new industrial and educational development were being laid; and the arrangements for a systematic administration of law and justice were quietly made ready. An extensive religious revival was in progress—with phenomena corresponding to those familiar to students of such subjects, when the moral power of a higher religion first makes itself felt among a people who are ignorant devil- and spirit-worshippers and are habitually negligent or corrupt in respect of the manliest virtues. All this ferment was both caused, and pervaded in its characteristics, by the Korean national hatred of the race that was destined to subdue and, as we hope, redeem them.

During Marquis Ito’s absence in Japan those opposed to the workings of the recently established Japanese Protectorate over Korea were indeed busily engaged. Their various enterprises took the several forms mentioned above. As to assassination, one unsuccessful attempt had been made some time before the Marquis’ return to Korea. A beautiful box of nickel was sent as a present to acting Prime Minister Pak. No one of the Korean Court, being wise in their generation, ventured to examine its contents or even to raise the lid of the box. Subsequently the Resident-General examined it himself. It proved to be an ingenious contrivance by which the turning of the key and lifting the lid would pull the trigger of a pistol and explode the powder with which the box was filled. Both box and pistol were of American manufacture. The intention of the pretended present, which it was doubtless hoped would be the more eagerly accepted and naïvely dealt with, since it ostensibly came from so “friendly” a country, needs no investigation. The precise source of the murderous gift will perhaps never be accurately known.