The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1907. THE FATE OF KOREA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 171, 19 July 1907, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1907. THE FATE OF KOREA.

B I Tar the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, ! For the future in the distance, I And tlie good that we can de.

Since the great war closed, and the j curtain was rung down on the Far East- j crn stage, there has been ample oppor- j tunity for strange, developments behind j the scenes. And if the rumours that have j recently reached Europe and America from Korea in any way approximate to the truth, the Powers will speedily be , forced to turn their attention once again toward ''the Land of the Morning Calm.'' Ostensibly the recent appearance of a Korean deputation at The Hague Conference was nothing more than a picturesque and unexpected epi- ! sode. But following on the news of the j Korean protest against the neglect of the Powers came word that the Emperor ,of Korea had repudiated the enivoys and their message. Now we are told that the Premier of Korea has called upon the Emperor to abdicate in j favour of the Crown Prim p, on the i ground that he was responsible for this ' embassy to The Hague. But the Emi peror. it appears, is not yet willing to efface himself ;and the references to > Tokyo and the Japanese Foreign Minister in our cable messages throw a sinister light upon these extraordinary pro- ' ceedings. So far as can be gathered at

this distance, the Emperor of Korea has once again been struggling to assert his independence in defiance of the Japanese, and they are resolved to get rid of him so that they may be able to do as they please in Korea without hindrance or protest.

The position that Japan is supposed' I to hold in Kore?. has been defined with the most scrupulous care by several treaties and international agreements. When the Mikado issued his famous declaration of war against Russia in 1004, he stated that one of Japan's chief objects was " to preserve the integrity of Korea." Long before this, in 1896 and 1898, Japan and Russia had jointly and severally guaranteed " the sovereignty and entire independence of Korea." When the war broke out in 1004 Japan signed a treaty with Korea, engaging to "insure the safety and repose of the Imperial House of Korea," and once again guaranteeing " the independence and territorial integrity of the Korean Empire." There can be no doubt that

when the war began, and when it closed,

Korea had received the strongest assurances from Japan that the country was to remain independent, and that the rights of its native rulers were to be respected. It was of course essential that

Japan, after driving Russia out of Korea and Manchuria, should be allowed to take such steps as she deemed necessary to prevent the recurrence of the situation that led up to the war; and for that reason, both in her treaty with Russia and in the terms of her alliance with England, she justly stipulated for a certain amount of discretion and freedom of action in her guardianship of Korea. But if we are to accept the evidence of the Koreans and of more than one impartial and competent European observer, the Mikado's ministers have gone far beyond these reasonable limits, Sand in more than one authoritative quarter Japan is now charged with breaking her treaty obligations, and endeavouring to destroy that " independence and integrity" which she stands pledged to guard faithfully for Korea and its people.

There is no possibility of denying that within the last two years Japan has practically installed herself as Regent of Korea. The whole administration of the country is in her Bands, and the Emperor and his ministers have become merely instruments in the hands of the

Mikado to register Jfis' decrees. But' the Japanese claim that they are fully justified in everything that they have done by the terms of a treaty signed between Korea and Japan la November, 1905. The chief features of this treaty ore that "the external relations and affairs" of Korea are to be controlled by the Japanese Foreign Minister irom Tokyo: that Korea is not to conclude any agreement with foreign Powers except through Japan; and that Japan shall be represented at Seoul by a Resident-General, -who shall appoint Residents in place of Consuls at the chief centres of trade. This agreement we need hardly point out amounted to a virtual abdication by the Emperor of his Imperial authority, and a complete surrender of Korea's independence to Japan. But unfortunately for the Japanese side iof the case, there has recently been given to the world a remarkable document which throws rather more than doubt or suspicion upon this supposed treaty. Through Mr. Douglas Story, one of the many distinguished- journalists who followed the changing fortunes of the great struggle in the' Far East, the Emperor of Korea has issued a solemn protest, repudiating in every particular the treaty that Japan claims to have arranged with Korea after the end of the war. The Emperor declares that he did not sign or agree to sigii the treaty; that he has never surrendered any part of his sovereign rights to the Japanese; that he has never authorised the Japanese to -appoint any official to exercise the Imperial authority claimed for their Residents and ResidentsGeneral, or to control Korea's internal I affairs; and this extraordinary appeal ends with a request to the Powers to 1 exercise a joint Protectorate over Korea jso as to save her from Japan.

We have unfortunately no space for Mr Story's intensely interesting narrative of the circumstances connected with the extortion of this agreement from the hapless Koreans. To put it briefly it would appear Lhat the Emperor resolutely refused to accept the terms laid before him by Viscount Hayashi; that, the Prime Minister implored the Emperor not to yield even though his life and the lives of all his Ministers should be the price of rejection; that General Hasegawa drew his sword and threatened the Prime Minister, who still persisted in his refusal; that with him the Ministers (of Justice and Finance—three out of a | Cabinet of eight—persevered in their resolve not to sign the treatj--. that when I the other Ministers signed ihe Minister i for Foreign Affairs protested that his seal was used without his consent; and that as soon as the treaty was published, a large body of ex-Ministers and public officials met at Seoul and called upon the Emperor to repudiate the agreement and to punish with death the Ministers who had accepted it. The Emperor was practically a prisoner in his palace. He seems to Tie a well meaning and patriotic man, but, like all the Koreans he is a man of peace, and he can hardly forget that ten years ago his wife the Empress was murdered by Japanese conspirators who feared her sympathy for the Rusjsians. Rightly or wrongly the Emperor believes that he is in peril of his life;

aud the request of the Japanese Government that he should resign in favour of tb.e Crown Prince certainly lends colour to the opinion that the Mikado's Ministers regard him as an obstacle, that must be removed from their path.

But the Koreans as a nation are opposed no less bitterly than their Emperor to the renunciation of their independence at the bidding of Japan. For many days j and nights the gates of the Emperor's palace were besieged by crowds of sup- ; pliants, kneeling bareneadea, as is the custom of the country, waiting for him to grant their request, and denounce the treaty. The leading nobles and officials in the country sent a joint memorial to all the Foreign Legations in Seoul, protesting indignantly against the Convention, on the gTound that the Japanese envoy had used threats and violence, that the palace was crowded with soldiers, and that the official seal used had been stolen from the Foreign Minister. When all remonstrances failed, ! Prince Kirn Yong, a general and exMinister, committed suicide, to demonstrate his loyalty and patriotism. There seems to be no doubt that the people of the country have done all they can dd in the way of protest against this surrender of their country's independence into the hands of Japan. And anxious as England must be to credit the Japanese -with good faith and sincerity, it would certainly seem to require a great deal of diplomatic ingenuity to prove, that Japan has not gone beyond the limits of her treaty obligations in her dealings with Korea.