“Article II. The Japanese and Russian Governments should try to abandon to Korea, in so far as the financial and economic situation of that country should permit, the creation and the maintenance of an armed force and of a police organized of native subjects, in proportions sufficient to maintain internal order, without foreign aid.
“Article III. With a view to facilitating communications with Korea, the Japanese Government shall continue to administer the telegraphic lines which are actually in its possession.
“It is reserved to Russia to establish a telegraphic line from Seul to her frontier.
“These various lines should be purchased by the Korean Government, as soon as it finds means so to do.
“Article IV. In case the principles above expounded require a more precise and more detailed definition, or if in the future other points should arise about which it should be necessary to consult, the Representatives of the two Governments should be instructed to discuss them amicably.”[[504]]
A few days earlier, on May 14, there was concluded at Seul between M. Komura and M. Waeber, the Japanese and Russian Ministers, a Memorandum dealing with matters of more immediate interest to the two Powers.[[505]] M. Waeber agreed to advise the Korean King to return from the Russian Legation to his palace, as soon as there was no more apprehension for his safety, M. Komura pledging in return to keep the Japanese political bravoes (sō-shi) in Seul under a strict surveillance (Article I.). It was declared that the present Cabinet members[[506]] of Korea were noted for generous and mild principles, and had been appointed to their posts by the King of his own accord. The Japanese and Russian Representatives should always make it their aim to advise the King to govern his people in generous spirit (Article II.). The remainder of the Memorandum is more worthy of record:—
“Article III. The Representative of Russia quite agrees with the Representative of Japan that, at the present state of affairs in Korea, it may be necessary to have the Japanese guards stationed at some places for the protection of the Japanese telegraph line between Fusan and Seul, and that these guards, now consisting of three companies of soldiers, should be withdrawn as soon as possible and replaced by gendarmes, who will be stationed as follows: fifty men at Tai-ku, fifty men at Ka-heung, and ten men each at ten intermediate posts between Fusan and Seul. This distribution may be liable to some changes, but the total number of gendarme force shall never exceed 200 men, who will afterwards be gradually withdrawn from those places in which peace and order have been restored by the Korean Government.[[507]]
“Article IV. For the protection of the Japanese settlements at Seul and the open ports against the possible attacks by the Korean populace, two companies of Japanese troops may be stationed at Seul, one company at Fusan and one at Gensan, each company not to exceed 200 men. These troops shall be quartered near the settlements, and should be withdrawn as soon as no apprehensions of such attacks could be entertained.
“For the protection of the Russian Legation and Consulates, the Russian Government may also keep guards not exceeding in number the Japanese troops at these places, which will be withdrawn as soon as tranquillity in the interior is completely restored.”[[508]]
A casual reading of these agreements will show how far the Japanese Government had receded from the position she originally took in regard to Korea. Ever since Japan concluded her treaty with Korea in 1876,[[509]] which for the first time established the international position of the latter State as a sovereign Power, Japan’s policy had been to uphold the independence and the opening of the Peninsular Kingdom. From the strict terms of this policy, Japan has allowed herself to depart twice,—in her agreements, first, with China in 1885, and, again, with Russia in 1896,—not by forsaking its principles, but in each case by entering, in the pursuit of the policy, into an impossible association with an aggressive Power. In each of the two instances the attempt failed within a decade, and resulted in hostilities. In 1885, Japan and China simultaneously withdrew their forces from Korea, and thereby cleared the ground for the renewed conflict of their opposing interests, which were artificially placed on a par with one another. In 1896, Japan admitted Russia’s right to build a telegraph line in North Korea which should correspond to the Japanese line in the south, and to station in Korea a number of troops equal to that of the Japanese soldiers. Despite the millenniums of her historic relations with Korea, and the actual preponderance of her interests therein, and after her successful liberation of the Kingdom from Chinese suzerainty by a costly war, Japan, now admitted into the Peninsular politics on an equal footing with herself a Power which owed its bright success to a mere diplomacy of less than two years’ standing, and whose policy seemed to be guided by principles entirely at variance with the independence and strength of Korea.