They forced themselves into the commissioner’s presence and with bluff and reiterated demands wearied him into sending his resignation to Seoul, which, however, the king refused to accept.
“Father Wilhelm’s” church is in a valley about ten miles from Hai Ju, entirely surrounded by high hills. The entrance to the valley at that time was guarded by sentinels, and the points of vantage on the hill tops were occupied in the same way. When any one is seen approaching, a signal is given, and the people (for the village is full of fugitives from justice) flee into the church, which it will be seen serves the triple purpose of a court with torture chamber, a citadel, and a place of worship.
When police were sent there with warrants of arrest for some of the worst miscreants, Father Wilhelm met them at the door with a revolver, demanding what they wanted. When told, he requested to see the warrants, denied that any such persons were there, would not allow them to enter, nor would he return the warrants, but with threats bade them begone. On more than one occasion posses of armed men were sent by him to rescue criminals who had been seized.
The cruelest forms of torture, such as are used only by Korean officials in cases of murder and treason, were used by the priests in their churches to force poor peasants to give over their money or the deeds of their houses and farms. Mr. Underwood and Dr. Moffett spent some weeks in Hai Ju, carefully studying these matters and in close attendance at the trials. In addition to the above facts they discovered that this was not a persecution waged upon Protestants by Catholics, but a system of blackmail laid on the whole community, and that the number of complaints brought in by non-Christian natives were, compared to those from Christians, as twenty to one. Again, that the French priests were (in the present instance, at least) demanding, as in China, a right to sit with a judge in a court of justice and modify sentences. We learned further that the people were tormented to the verge of insurrection, and had planned to rise on a certain day, when the news that a commission had been appointed, and that the missionaries had come down to see fair play at the investigations, calmed and decided them to await further developments.
The results of the trials were very unsatisfactory. With the small force of men at his command, with the priests foiling every effort to make arrests, few men were apprehended. Those who were brought to trial, by their own admissions and self-contradictions, and by the consistent and overwhelming testimony of many witnesses, were all proved guilty of the charges laid against them. The priests, and by far the majority of the miscreants, including the ringleaders, who could not be caught, went scot free. The commissioner made a report to the Korean government, asking for the deportation of the two priests, Wilhelm and Le Gac, which the Korean government did not ask, but which it would have been thought should hardly have been necessary. Were not the Koreans long suffering to a remarkable degree, as well as a feeble power, they would long since have risen and cast out all foreigners from their desecrated shores. In the light of what we have seen and heard here, the cause of the Boxer troubles in China is not far to seek. Thus is national sentiment aroused against us; for long persistence in conduct similar to this was foreign blood spilled like water there, and for such reasons are the gates of Thibet barred to the gospel.
The following official report of the interview between the priest and the governor of Whang Hai province, in the presence of the inspector sent by the king, will show what a state of affairs existed.
“Translation of the official report of the interview held between the governor of Whang Hai Do and Father Wilhelm, in the presence of the Inspector Yi Eung Ik. Eighth day 2d Moon Koang Mu.
“In the seventh year of Quang Mo in the second moon and eighth day, the governor of Whang Hai Do, Yi Yung Chick, and the French teacher, Hong Sok Ku (Mons. Wilhelm), conferred. Hong Sok Ku said, ‘The controversy between the governor and myself arose from the governor’s not appeasing my wrath by arresting Mr. Pak Chang Mou of Whang Ju, and punishing him. This Pak, at night after dark, had thrown stones at the church of Han Sinpu (a native Korean priest), and I therefore had spoken to the local magistrate of Whang Ju and asked to have him arrested and imprisoned, but Pak, through his local influence, had returned undisturbed to his home, and as there seemed no other means of having him punished, I wrote a letter to the governor, asking that he would have Pak brought up to the provincial town of Hai Ju and severely punished. The governor replied that he could not have the people of local magistracies brought up to Hai Ju, and I therefore supposed that the governor had no power to arrest the people of outside local magistracies, and when I learned to my surprise that there was an order for the arrest of some of the Christians (Romanist) of Shinampo by the governor, feeling sure that it was a false order, I released by force all those whom the police were arresting, and at once ordered all my Christians, if any one came out to arrest them again, to resist it utterly.’”
The governor replied: “As for the business of Pak of Whang Ju, since he had been already arrested and imprisoned in Whang Ju, and there was therefore no reason why he should be brought up to Hai Ju, I did not do so as you had asked, and as for my reply in my former letter, that I could not arrest him, it was in accordance with the Chibang Cheido (Book of Laws) in regard to local and provincial jurisdiction, and the reason why, after my people have appealed, I can order them arrested to try the case, is in accordance with the Chaipan Chang Chung, or book of rules for courts of justice, and if you had any doubts about the earlier or later affair, while it would not have been out of the way to have asked a question, is it right with your followers to gather a crowd and organize a band to arrest and carry off policemen, to release and set free those who have broken the laws, and to order your followers to resist authority, so making your people fall into sin, and making it impossible for the appointed authorities to administer justice?
“Desirous of instructing these ignorant people, I sent one of the Chusas (high official next to the governor) attached to this governorship, but you sent out a company of men with firearms, twelve miles, and after dark seized and carried off this official. A Chusa is a national government officer, military arms are outrageous things; leaning upon what authority did you do such things as these, and by whose authority do you arrest and carry off Koreans and try to administer justice?”