KOREAN FUNERAL

Evening Star, Issue 19275, 14 June 1926, Page 5

KOREAN FUNERAL

EX-EIiMOR'S BURIAL IMPRESSIVE PROCESSION DISTURBING ELEMENTS. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright TOKIO, June 12. In anticipation of a serious uprising on the occasion of tho funeral of tlio ex-Emperor of Korea, the police at Seoul raided tho headquarters of the malcontents. They seized documents affording proof that funds supplied from the Vladivostock headquarters of the Third Internationale for tho purpose of fomenting a Communistic demonstration and revolt during the funeral. Many thousands of Koreans from all parts of Korea and Japan had flocked to Seoul. Tho police were strongly reinforced, 3,000 guarding the route of the funeral. Many or the malcontents were put in gaol as the result of police raids, but only tho leaders were kept in prison. Tho funeral was tho largest ever seen in the Orient, more than 30,000 people walking in the procession. Tho coffin was enclosed in a huge wooden panoply canned on tho shoulders of 2,000 pall-bearers. Tho coffin was followed by Viscount Matsuru, representing the Japanese Emperor, and then came the Prince and Princess, followed by representatives of the Tofcio diplomatic staff, and then thousand of visitors and professional weepers. Over a quarter of a million visitors entered tho city. Tho procession, when nearing the funeral placo, was thrown into confusion bv a body of students attemptI iug to distribute inflammatory literature. The students wore arrested, but Koreans lining the route took up tho shouts, adding to the disturbance. During tho procession the whole of the pall-bearers struck, alleging that they had been ill-treated, and abandoned the catafalque on the road iwo miles from the grave. Coolies were hastily despatched from Seoul to replace the strikers, while the cortege waited.—Sydney 1 Sun ’ and Reuter Cables.

Yi Syek, tho thirty-fifth and last Sovereign of his dynasty to rule over Korea, succeeded as Emperor on the abdication of his lather, Yi H.yeung, on July 19, 1907. Few and evil wore tho annals ot his reign. He entered upon his heritage in days of trouble, and threo years and six weeks later, in tho same palace at Seoul where ho had been acclaimed Emperor, he was forced to surrender the crown which hud been hold by his ancestors since 1392.

Tlio ex-Empernr was never more than a puppet monarch. Born in 187-1, Irj had from his youth up been witness to the struggle between China, Japan, and Russia for the lordship of his country, where all the worst abuses of medievalism flourished; ho had seen its independence acknowledged and his father change his title from King to Emperor; and he had seen that same father—a man of great cunning and little knowledge, who kept an immense harem and consulted diviners and soothsayers—compelled to place the control of Korea’s foreign relations in tho hands of Japan. That was in 1905, and within a week of his lather's abdication YI Syek was himself forced by Prince Ito, tho Japanese ResidentGeneral (afterwards murdered by a Korean fanatic), to sign a new convention, followed by still another convention in 1909, which in all but namo deprived the Emporor of any control over internal affairs. .Ho was compelled to decree tho disbandment of his army as useless and inefficient —as truly it was—though one battalion as a bodyguard was left him. Rut tho Japanese measures _ provoked a guerrilla. warfare, and finally Japan wrung .from Yi Syek the treaty of August, 1910, in which he formally signed away the sovereignty of his country, id Syek was credited with tho possession ot considerable ability, but as Emperor he. was never given tho chance of doing anything. Japan had, in 1904, guaranteed the welfare and dignity of tho Korean Imperial House, and tho dethroned' monarch and his family, who were removed to Tokio, were shown much personal consideration. Besides a substantial civil list (£150,000, raised in 1921 to £180,000) they received Japanese patents or nobility, tho exEmperor being officially styled ins Imperial Highness Yi Wang (Prince Yi), In his exile the Prince led a quiet life, and gave at least no active support to the Korean movement to regain independence. Ho seems to have realised tho uselessness of the appeals made at tho close of the Great "War by the Koreans for tho right of self-de-termination. Moreover, his recollections of Seoul included the murder of his mother in tho Royal palace and the flight of his father to the Russian Legation, and bo may well have preferred the .security of an obscure career. He is survived by his socouu wife, a member of tho nobio family of Yu, whom ho bad married six jiimhuis before his accession. Prince Yi had no children, and Ids successor as head ot tho family is Prince Kon, who has hitherto been known in Japan as the Prince Heir. Twenty-three years younger than Ins brother, Prince Kon was only thirteen when Korea was annexed, and lie has been educated on Japanese lines. Ho was sent to the Military Academy at Tokio, and is attached to the Imperial Rody Guard. He married, in 1920, Princess Mnsako, daughter of Prince Nnshimoto, the head of one of the, Japanese Houses ot tho Blood Royal.