ASSASSINATION PLOT IN COREA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13482, 8 May 1907, Page 7

ASSASSINATION PLOT IN COREA.

THIRTY-THREE ARRESTS

MADE.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.

Tokio, May 6. It is reported from Corea that a plot has been discovered to assassinate the five Corean Ministers who in 1904 signed the Convention which established a Japanese protectorate over the country. •. The movement is widespread, and 33 of the ringleaders of it, all men prominent in ( the ranks of scholarship, have been arrested.^

■ The Convention referred to was entered into by .the Corean Government under pressure' from Japan. Prior to 1895 Corea had been •■'. under the protectorate of China,' "but, by'the treaty of Shimoneski, made in May ai that .year;. China renounced her claim, and the country came under the influence of Japan". It was this almost virtual suzerainty: that led the .Japanese, before the war with Russia, to resist the granting of timber concessions on the Yalu to Russians;. The Convention of 1904 placed the protectorate powers of Japan in regular form,■ and extended to that country, the actual control of Corea's finances and foreign affairs. The Japanese have proved somewhat severe masters, and recent news received via Brisbane stated that, a Core an had attempted to murder the Japanese Minister for War, and that a. secret, society had been formed; in Corea to assassinate all the Japanese officials.