Japan Decides to Reform Corea without China’s Aid—Corean Palace Guards Fire on the Japanese Escort of Minister Otori—Momentous Result of the Skirmish—Announcement of Corean Independence—Tai-wen Kun as Prime Minister—The First Collision at Sea—Sinking of the Kow-shing—Fighting Around Asan—Defeat of the Chinese—Li Hung Chang Declares that the War Will Be Fought to the Bitter End—Japan’s Formal Declaration of War—China’s Response—The Conflict Begun.
Failing to secure China’s co-operation, Mr. Otori told the officials at Seoul that the government was now determined of her own accord to see the needed reforms carried out. The Corean government still showing no disposition to acquiesce in his proposals, the Japanese minister determined to have a personal interview with the king, of whose sympathy with the policy of the Ming party, there was some doubt. The minister had regarded the reply of the Corean government to his demands as insolent, and knowing that its substance had been made known to the Corean officers, he felt an apprehension of violence toward himself and the members of the legation. He therefore insisted on being accompanied by a strong escort of Japanese on the occasion of any further visits to the palace.
On the morning of July 23, attended by this escort of Japanese guards, and accompanied by the father of the king, Mr. Otori set out from the legation for the purpose of having another interview with the Corean monarch. As the minister with his fully armed escort approached the palace, they were fired upon by troops in the service of the Ming ministry, some of whom were stationed within the palace walls. The fire was promptly returned by the Japanese, and a sharp skirmish ensued which lasted twenty minutes. One Japanese cavalryman and two foot-soldiers were wounded; while the Corean loss was seventeen killed and seventy wounded. When quiet was restored, the Japanese were in possession of the palace. The result of the fight was momentous—the complete overthrow of the Ming, or pro-Chinese faction in the Corean government.
On the same day the Corean king formally announced his independence of China. One of his first acts was to request an interview with Mr. Otori, and before the interview had ended that day the Japanese ministers saw the Tai-wen Kun, father of the king, and formerly regent during the latter’s minority, formally installed as prime minister and instructed to introduce administrative reforms such as Japan had proposed. A written pledge was signed by the king, guaranteeing that the remedying of social and political abuses should begin as soon as the proper machinery could be put in operation; the old counsellors of the king were replaced by men believed to be in sympathy with progressive principles. Japan on her part made herself responsible for the execution of these pledges. The part taken by the king in the reforms is somewhat uncertain. One of the most eminent authorities on Corean affairs has declared that the king himself cannot be looked upon as a potent factor in the struggle; that he is a weak, amiable, nervous man, whose only importance consists in the fact that he is a king and in the sanction that his presence, and authority, and seal may be considered to lend to the party with which he sides. He has not been on good terms with his father, and when the Japanese placed the latter in charge there was considerable uncertainty as to the results that would follow.
The same day that this skirmish at the palace occurred between Corean and Japanese troops, a report was sent out which might have involved Great Britain in the eastern war. It was alleged that ill-treatment had been offered by the Japanese troops to the British consul-general at Seoul, Mr. Gardner and his wife. The assertion was that the Japanese troops forbade their passing the line of sentries which had been drawn around an encampment, and that unnecessary force had been used to accomplish this. The falsity of the charges, or the fact that they were very much overdrawn, was proved upon the first investigation, no regulations being in force except those natural and proper in such times.
The situation in Corea developed very slowly. The ways of the east are not as the ways of the west, and one of the most deeply-rooted and highly-prized instincts which oriental diplomatists have inherited from a long line of their ancestors is a profound belief in the merits of procrastination.
The first important collision at sea occurred in Prince Jerome gulf, about forty miles off Chemulpo, on July 25, one week before the formal declaration of war. Up to the night of July 19, the highest authorities at Tien-tsin did not anticipate war, but as a matter of watchful policy the war-office chartered the British steamers Irene, Fei Ching, and Kow-shing, belonging to the Indo-Chinese Steam Navigation company, and a number of Chinese merchant steamers, for the transportation of troops. The object was to transport the second division from Taku to Asan, to reinforce the Chinese army in that Corean city. The Irene was the first to leave Taku, July 21, with one thousand one hundred and fifty troops, with one of the owners and his wife on board; the other two vessels were to leave on the 22nd and 23rd.
PROCESSION IN SEOUL.