The Protocol of June, 1896, was no sooner signed than Russia proceeded to violate its terms. In the same month she tried to gain control of the Korean army by placing it under Russian instruction and discipline; in the same year, she urged the request that the disposal of all the Korean taxes and customs be placed in the hands of M. Kir Alexeieff. This plan was partly carried through the following year, and Mr. J. McLeavy Brown was dismissed from the position of Financial Adviser and General Director of Customs for Korea, although he was soon after formally restored to the latter office, the control of which he had never been, in fact, induced to surrender. In August of 1897, M. de Speyer succeeded M. Waeber as the Representative of Russia (Conseiller d’Etat) in Korea; his conduct of Russian affairs, which seems to have been quite devoid of the conciliatory policy of his predecessor, lost for his country many of the advantages which had already been secured. Besides the inducement from this fact, the recent acquisition of Port Arthur and Ta-lien-wan seemed to make it desirable for Russia, for the time being at least, to conciliate Japan. And Japan, on her part, definitively committed herself to the effort to conciliate Russia, while at the same time safeguarding her own important, and indeed essentially vital, interests in the Peninsula. Accordingly there was concluded between the two nations the Nishi-Rosen Protocol of August 25, 1898.
That instrument was as follows:
Article I.—The Imperial governments of Japan and Russia definitely recognize the sovereignty and entire independence of Korea, and mutually engage to abstain from all direct interference in the affairs of that country.
Article II.—Desiring to remove every possible cause of misunderstanding in the future, the Imperial governments of Japan and Russia mutually engage not to take any measure regarding the nomination of military instructors and financial advisers without having previously arrived at a mutual accord on the subject.
Article III.—In view of the great development of the commercial and industrial enterprise of Japan in Korea, as also the considerable number of Japanese subjects residing in that country, the Russian Imperial Government shall not impede the development of commercial and industrial relations between Japan and Korea.
Five days later—namely, on August 30th—Marquis Ito, who was visiting in Korea, and had been cordially received by the Emperor and invited to dine with him, publicly reaffirmed the policy for which His Imperial Majesty of Japan and he himself, as His Majesty’s subject, wished to be responsible, in a speech delivered at a dinner given at the Foreign Office. On that occasion the Marquis spoke as follows:
Your Excellencies and Gentlemen:
I thank you sincerely for the kind words in which the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs has just addressed me on your behalf, but at the same time I am constrained to say that I do not deserve the high compliments which he chose to confer upon me. Allow me to avail myself of the present opportunity to say a few words concerning the attitude of Japan toward this country. You doubtless know that in 1873 a group of Japanese statesmen advocated the despatch of a punitive expedition to Korea, a proposal to which I was uncompromisingly opposed from the outset, because I deemed such a war not only uncalled for, but contrary to the principles of humanity. You may imagine the magnitude of the excitement occasioned by this question, when I tell you that the split which it caused in the ranks of the Japanese statesmen led to a tremendous civil war a few years afterward. The point to which I wish to direct your attention is that His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s Government did not hesitate to reject what it considered to be an unjust proposal even at such gigantic risk.
Japan’s policy toward Korea has since been unchanged; in other words, her object has always been to assist and befriend this country. It is true that at times incidents of an unpleasant nature unfortunately interfered with the maintenance of unsuspecting cordiality between the two nations. But I may conscientiously assure you that the real object of the Japanese Government has always been to render assistance to Korea in her noble endeavors to be a civilized and independent state.
I am sincerely gratified to see that to-day Korea is independent and sovereign. Henceforth it will be Japan’s wish to see Korea’s independence further strengthened and consolidated; no other motive shall influence Japan’s conduct toward this country. On this point you need not entertain the slightest doubt.