The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1919 KOREA'S APPEAL.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 72, 25 March 1919, Page 4

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

TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1919 KOREA'S APPEAL.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, ■And the good that we con do.

Xo doubt when the League of Nations is finally established, and its rights and duties arc- satisfactorily defined, \i will h'nd plenty of scope for it* activities, and the appeal which the. Koreans have just addressed to the Powers in general, and to the I'nited States in particular, suggests that the new international authority will soon have its hands full. The Koreans maintain that for the past twenty years and more they have been dealt with unfairly and oppressively by the Japanese, and that Japan has nowestablished absolute domination over

them, to tlic complete extinction of their freedom and independence. In view of the evidence that the Koreans are able to bring forward in support of tlieir complaints, it will be extremely difficult for the Powers which will subscribe their nnmea to the League of Nations either to ignore them or to evade the responsibility of adopting a definite policy of readjustment in the Far East with special reference to the claims and the purposes of Japan. Twenty-five years back Korea, though governed by its own Emperor, was reeogjnised as a dependency of China, and when the Japanese, for various reasons that need not detain us now, decided to make war on China in 1894, they concluded a treaty-with Korea, asserting its territorial integrity and political independence. As late as 1!H)4, when Japan declared war on Russia, she arranged a new treaty with Korea, in wliich, once, more she "definitely guarantees the independence and territorial integrity of the Korean Empire." Thus, up to the moment when the Russo-Japanese ivar lie.'an Japan had not officially modified in any particular her repeated recognition of Korea's independence and its absolute right as a sovereign .State to control its own internal affairs. But when Japan had triumphed over Russia and secured for the moment ascendancy for herself in the Far East. the whole situation promptly changed. In the Treaty of Portsmouth, which closed the war in August. 1905, Russia admitted Japan's " paramount political, military, and economic interests" in Korea. During the next month Sept. 190,")) the second Anglo-Japanese treaty was published, which in its third article concedes to Japan the right to take measures to assert and defend the political, commercial and military interests already admitted by Russia, "provided that such measures are not contrary to the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and iudustry of all nations." It is amazing that Britain should have practically given Japan "carte blanche" to deal with Korea as she pleased, subject only to a very indefinite condition, which Japan has had no difficulty in evading. We can only conclude that the British statesmen responsible for the treaty were so much impressed by Japan's victory, and so anxious to propitiate her that they temporarily lost sight of the weighty moral and political considerations that ought to have forbidden any such compact. But whatever the reasons may have been the effect was speedily seen in Japan's prompt and vigorous action in Korea. In November of the same j'ear, \M)~>, the Manjuis Ito was dispatched to Korea, and in spite of the strenuous protests of the Emperor and his Council, a very short period elapsed before he informed the world that political influences had compelled Japan to take control of Korea. In 1903 the Emperor appealed in vain to Washington, and in 190(5 he succeeded in sending a secret document to the British Minister at i'ekin protesting in pathetic and vehement language against this usurpation of his rights. In 1907, Korean envoys appeared before the Hague Conference to plead their country's cause; but once more the prestige of Japan and her friendship wilh Britain proved insuperable obstacles, and the envoys could not even get a hearing. Japan retaliated by forcing the Emperor to abdicate, and replacing him by a puppet [ prince, feeble in intellect and incapable of any resistance to their demands.! This was in 1907, and from that day! Japan has had virtually political and! commercial control of Korea, dealing with it as practically her own preserve, and treating the people with the most vigorous severity whenever they have ventured to rebel. We have said enough, not only to explain the reasons for the protest that the Koreans are now making 'to the Powers, but to justify the League of Nations, when once it is organised, in giving careful attention to their appeal.