In Korea with Marquis Ito

by George Trumbull Ladd

CHAPTER VI
CHEMULPO AND OTHER PLACES

Besides Seoul and Pyeng-yang the two most important seaports of Korea, which are Chemulpo and Fusan, were the only places in the peninsula where it seemed possible to arrange for even a single address. An honest attempt was made by a personal visit of the foreign secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association to “negotiate” an invitation from the Koreans of Song-do, the ancient capital under the dynasty preceding that at present on the throne. But Song-do is an exceedingly conservative city, and the family of Yun Chi-ho is influential there. Thus, even its Korean Christians did not care to hear addresses on matters of morals and religion from a guest of the Japanese Resident-General. It is well to recall again in this connection the fact that, although Pyeng-yang has actually suffered more at the hands of Japanese invaders than any other city of Korea, the influence of the Christian missionaries and their converts was so powerful there that the most sympathetic and crowded native audiences greeted the “friend of Japan” in that city. There, too, in connection with Dr. Noble, presiding elder of the Methodist missions in all that part of the country, I was able to be of most service to both countries in a time of rather unusual threatening and exigency. This fact confirms the impression that, in Seoul, fear of the Court and of the Yang-bans is cramping the work even of the foreign religious teachers. But Chemulpo and Fusan are the places in Korea where the two peoples have been longest in the compelling contact of common business interests. Observation of results in these places had, therefore, some special value. The visit to Fusan came later, and properly belongs to the story of our departure from Korea. But the visit to Chemulpo and its experiences may fitly be spoken of in this place.

The invitation to speak at Chemulpo came from the Japanese Resident and from the Mayor, as official representatives of the educational interests of the city. The affair was, therefore, conducted much more in the familiar Japanese style than were the invitations to speak in Seoul or Pyeng-yang. At the same time, it had been decided that I was to address a Korean audience in Chemulpo, and Dr. Jones had consented to make this possible by the help of his valuable skill in interpretation. It had been arranged that we should meet him and Mr. Zumoto, who was to interpret the address to the Japanese, at the South Gate station for the 11.40 A.M. express. But as the time of leaving approached, it appeared that something was detaining the Doctor; finally we were obliged to go on without him. In person he appeared at Chemulpo in the early afternoon and explained that he had been detained in order to prepare for the funeral of one of the native members of his church; several hours still later, while we were taking tea at the Resident’s house, we were handed (as an example of the despatch with which this service is at present rendered in Korea) the explanatory telegram which had been sent in the early morning.

The fields between Seoul and Chemulpo, on the morning of May 6, 1907, were beautifully green, for the spring rains had been unusually abundant and the crops were correspondingly promising. Combined with the darker green of the pines, and contrasted with the red and yellow of the sand and rocks, they gave back to the eye that more vivid but less soothing pleasure of the Korean landscape to which reference has already been so frequently made. Along this line of railway, as everywhere, there is the same impression of undeveloped agricultural resources; there is also the same temptation to imagine how it will all look in the years to come, when Korea has been lifted out of its low industrial condition.

At the station we were met by the official deputation and escorted to the Japanese Club. The impression made by the streets through which we passed was not pleasing; for there had been rain, the air was laden with cold moisture, and the ground was either rough or torn up for repairs and heavy for the jinrikisha pullers with its coating of mud. But it should be remembered that this part of Chemulpo is in the making, whereas the older part had a few weeks before been swept by a destructive fire. The Chinese town, through which we now passed, bore a decayed air; but when the Japanese quarter was reached, in spite of the recent loss of some 400 houses, there was a thrifty and prosperous look, an appearance of determination, of not-to-mind-what-cannot-be-helped, so characteristic of the people themselves. The work of rebuilding this quarter was going briskly forward.

The population of Chemulpo consisted at that time of some 12,000 Japanese, from 15,000 to 20,000 Koreans, and about 2,000 Chinese (before the Japan-China war the number of the Chinese was about 5,000). There are less than 100 European and American residents. It is hoped by those interested in the business prospects of the city that, after the through all-rail route from Tairen to St. Petersburg is made in all respects first-class—and the consummation of this project will quickly follow under the management of Baron Goto and the Russian authorities, as soon as the commercial treaty between Japan and Russia takes effect—Chemulpo will be an important port of entry for the increasing trade of Korea. But the harborage is now so poor that ships of any considerable size have to lie far out in the offing, and the sand-bars between this anchorage and the wharfs are constantly forming and shifting their location. This coast of Korea is also made very dangerous by numerous rocky islands and sunken reefs, by variable and strong currents, and by one of the highest average tides to be found anywhere in the world. Plans for improving the harbor are, therefore, very important. Right in front of the Chinese hotel where we spent the night, the flats are being filled in, apparently with the double purpose of securing an extension of building lots, and also of shortening somewhat the distance between the city and the shipping at low tide. But the permanent improvement of the harbor of Chemulpo—and this is equivalent to securing one good port of entry for the entire western coast of Korea—offers a difficult problem. Either of the two ways of solving the problem which have hitherto been considered would be exceedingly expensive. To enclose a basin with a sea-wall and shut in the tide-water by gates, or to extend the wharf out some two miles to deep water, would cost many millions of yen.

After an excellent tiffin at the club, where we met some twenty Japanese ladies and gentlemen, I spoke to an audience of not more than one hundred and fifty—of this nationality almost exclusively—but of both sexes. The audience represented the educational and official interests of the city which, as is customary in Japan and elsewhere, are not paramount in places devoted to trade and commerce. Mr. Zumoto interpreted; the ethical and hortatory turn given to the remarks made them, apparently, no less but even more heartily received. I have already called attention to the striking fact that the thoughtful Japanese are becoming more impressed with the truth of the old-fashioned, but not as yet quite defunct, thought that it is, after all, “righteousness which exalteth a nation.” But the Koreans, as a people, have still to awake to the impression that either science or morality has any important bearing on the material and social welfare of the nation’s life. Following the lecture, there was tea at the Residency House; after which we were taken to one of those curious but by no means uncomfortable hostleries which one comes upon in the Far East. It was under the sign of “E. D. Steward & Co., Store. Keeper. & Hotel and Ship. Compradore.” The name “Steward” was assumed by its Chinese owner because he had filled this office on a small steamship for some years before. The advertisement did not at all exaggerate the variety of enterprises carried on under the same extensive roof by this example of a thrifty race. In the rooms over the store the representative of Mr. “Steward” (for we did not learn his true designation, either for this life of business or his “heavenly name”) cared for his guests as well as could reasonably be expected.

Most of the following morning was spent in conversation with Mr. W. D. Townsend, who has been in Korea since May, 1884, when he arrived at Chemulpo to open a branch of the “American Trading Co.” He thus antedates the founding of missionary work in Korea, although Dr. R. S. McClay had visited Seoul in June, 1883, to make arrangements for a mission; and Dr. Horace N. Allen, who afterward served as the representative of the United States Government, reached Korea in the September following. This conversation, continued on during luncheon at Mr. Townsend’s house, gave me incidents and opinions illustrating the problem I was studying as it appears to a shrewd and experienced man of business. Facts and opinions from this point of view were, I believed, no less important and informing than those to be learned from the missionary or the native or foreign official.