I.

“Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep.”“Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep.”“Lovest thou me? Feed my lambs.”

Oh, never swear thou lovest me,Who lovest not my sheep;For he who would my servant beMy treasured flock will keep.

Oh, never vow thou lovest me,As follower leal and true,Who shrinkest in my paths to be,Or fearest my will to do.

Oh, never weep thou lovest me,My lambs who feedest not;Who wouldst my crowning glory see,But hast the cross forgot?

Nay, if thou lovest, feed my sheep,On desert moors astray;The charge I gave thee surely keep,Until the final day.

Yea, if thou lovest me, thy Lord,My feeble lambs feed thou;They wander o’er the world abroad,Many lie fainting now.

Then never swear thou lovest me,Who loves not these of mine;Who would my true disciple be,Shall prove his love divine.

Historical Review—Korean Characteristics—Football between Japan, China and Russia—Ill-advised Movements—Unrest and Excitement—Korea Allied to Japan—Japanese in Korea—Po an Whai—Kaiwha—Railroad Extension—Japanese Protectorate—Petition to President Roosevelt—Removal of American Legation—Education in Korea—Righteous Army—True Civilization.

Before making a brief review of events which have taken place during the five years that have elapsed since the previous chapters were written, let us look a little further at the character of the Korean people so that we may understand them perhaps somewhat better and judge them a little more fairly as we scan their actions in reference to the conditions that follow.5

5I have to thank Mr. Homer B. Hulbert for many of these facts and dates, having refreshed my memory by frequent reference to his “History of Korea” and “The Passing of Korea.”

Although through the influence of their progressive Queen the country had been opened to foreigners in 1882, and although missionaries had been there since 1884, the impression made upon the people as a whole was very slight, owing to the lack of newspapers and other means of appeal to the public, and though in the capital a few progressionists had begun to feel the need of reform, the nation as such was still in a kind of stupor under the baleful charm of the example of China, and the influence of her classics and her civilization. Shut up for long centuries in complete seclusion—even Japan had been open twenty years to the stimulatinginfluences of the civilization of the West—still Korea in her belated “Morning Calm” slept on; while Japan had been up and catching her worms with the “Rising Sun,” and the first rude shock which startled her from this slumber and made her begin to look about was the defeat of China by her little neighbor.

Coincidentally with the rapid march of political events, the Gospel was making advances with constantly increasing momentum and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty of thought and action, and to-day, stung into life by the sharp lash of adversity, Korea is awake, wide awake, to sleep no more, for her Macbeth has effectually murdered sleep.

The Koreans have been frequently spoken and written of as listless, dull, stupid, lazy, an inferior race; but I submit this has been said mainly by travellers who did not know them, or by those who were their enemies and had an object in making the world think them worthless, or by those who had contented themselves with looking merely on the surface and had not studied them with a wish to know them at their best. There is a certain excuse for these views, if one observes only the rough coolies in the ports or the idle worthless “boulevardiers” who lounge about the streets of Seoul, or live by sponging on the generosity of some relative better off than themselves. But such a class can be found almost anywhere, even among the most advanced European nations.

To the writer it seems that there is a close parallel between the Irishman and the Korean. Both are happy-go-lucky, improvident, impulsive, warm-hearted, hospitable, generous. Take either in the midst of his native bogs, untutored, without incentive—he is thoughtless, careless, dirty; drinking, smoking and gamblingaway his time with apparently little ambition for anything better. Remove this same man, be he Irishman of Great Britain, or Irishman of the East—Korea—place him in a stimulating environment, educate him, instil the principles of Protestant Christianity, give him a chance to make a good living, and a certainty that he may keep his own earnings, and you will not find a better citizen, a more brilliant scholar, a finer Christian. Look at the men of North Ireland and tell me if this is not so? Look at the Christian Korean, self-supporting, independent, sober, faithful, industrious, eager to study. Hear the testimony of the missionaries of all denominations.

Hear the testimony even of the foreign mining companies, who avow the Koreans are the best workmen of any nationality they have employed.

Hear the testimony of the American planters in Hawaii, who say that the Koreans are the best workmen, the most sober, well-behaved, cleanly, domestic, peaceful and thrifty they have ever used, far superior to the Japanese, who are quarrelsome and unstable—or even the Chinese.

Witness the young Koreans who have graduated from our American colleges and medical schools side by side with Americans, often carrying away the honors.

Let us keep these facts in mind and remember that if Korea has been caught in the toils and has allowed her country to be usurped, she was caught napping. The whole nation was still in the bogs, and twenty-five years behind the rest of the world, in a time when a thousand years is as one day and one day as a thousand years. When China, the Titan, found herself helpless in the hands of the new régime, what could be expected of little Korea when she suddenly awoke to find herselfshut in a trap with a foreign army in her capital and foreign guns at her palace gates?

The most brilliant speaker at the great international conference in Tokio two years ago was unanimously by Japanese newspapers conceded to be a Korean, and an American told the writer that the grandest sermon he had ever listened to—and he had heard John Hall and the great Western divines—was preached in Korea by another Korean. The writer also recalls at this moment still two others who are capable of carrying any audience along enraptured, and whom she would not hesitate to rank with the best, most inspiring public speakers she has ever listened to.

We know many Koreans who have been given opportunity, environment, advantage, who have ability, energy, initiative and resource equal to that of the foremost Americans and Europeans. They are not, perhaps,par excellence, fighters like the Japanese or merchants like the Chinese. They have not the volatility and headlong impulsiveness of the one nor the stolid conservatism of the other, but they are the equals if not the superiors of either. Which of the three evolved an alphabet and a constitutional form of government?

This is the conscientious opinion of one who has known them for twenty years, closely, in every-day contact, through all sorts of circumstances, in city and country, and it is an opinion almost the opposite of that which was formed during the first years of acquaintance with them. It is the result of the developments of character seen in individuals and the nation. That they are friendly, hospitable, long-suffering, patient, any one who studies them without prejudice for a short time will admit, but those of us who know them best know that they have brilliant gifts and a high grade of intellectuality.The old simile of the rough diamond is a good one to apply to Koreans who seem perhaps worthless stones to the ignorant careless observer, but, when polished, they shine as brilliant jewels for the Redeemer’s crown.

Considerable space has been given to this question of Korean ability because much has been made of the other side, as an excuse for what might be thought otherwise inexcusable, and because it is right that the public should know they are not unworthy of its sympathy and interest. Nor should they be called cowardly because taken unaware by the rapid succession of cataclysmic political events which have whirled them along during the last few years. The “Morning Calm” is forever gone.

Korea has for many years been in a diplomatic way a sort of football between Japan, China and Russia, and in 1903 affairs were rapidly culminating toward the Russo-Japanese war. Yi Yong Ik, the Korean prime minister, who had then lately returned from Port Arthur and was zealously pro-Russian, like most of the court and officials, now began a series of attacks on Japanese interests.

Koreans had always regarded their neighbors on the East with the distrust which their not infrequent invasions warranted, and they believed that Russia, while she might invade, would not seek to Russianize; while she might plunder, would not colonize, or interfere at least more than incidentally or occasionally with personal right or private concerns as the others were almost certain to do.

Whenever trouble seemed brewing between Japan and other powers, whatever may have been the reason, the Korean government at least almost invariably went withthe other side, and at this time Korea and her royal family counted a long score of injuries and wrongs from Japan.

The murder of their Queen, the cutting of the top-knots, and the hard and burdensome laws enacted at that time, the indignities the Emperor had suffered in practical confinement and the insults heaped upon the dead Queen could not be forgotten. On the other hand Russia had sheltered and protected the King on his escape, had favored his complete freedom of action even while he resided in her Legation, and when patriotic Koreans had complained that Russian influence was becoming too great, had withdrawn all the causes of complaint, removed her bank, and the obnoxious officials, favored the departure of the King to his own palace and left everything in the hands of the Koreans.

Such conduct, whatever its motive, could not but excite gratitude, and add to this the degree of certitude with which nearly the whole East awaited the speedy defeat of the Japanese by mighty, all-powerful Russia, it is not hard to see why the Korean government were so strongly pro-Russian.

This, then, by way of partial explanation of the attitude of Yi Yong Ik and the Korean court and government and in fact of a great many of the Korean people, though just here it may be said that multitudes of the Koreans with all the Americans and Europeans, except perhaps the French, were pro-Japanese, believing that they would prove the saviors of Korea from all-absorbing Russia, that reform and progress, good government and order would follow in their train, and warm were our good wishes and hearty the delight with which we witnessed Japanese successes at the opening of the war.

This attitude of the Korean government continuedwithout change from the beginning to the end of the war, and now was the time when they might venture to show their real feeling and attempt some reprisals upon Japan.

First of all, then, the minister took the ill-advised measure of forbidding the use of the notes of the Japanese bank in Seoul, causing a run which came very near wrecking it. As the Japanese were in a position to retaliate, this resulted in apologies and withdrawals by the native government, but left a debt uncancelled for the Japanese to remember by and by.

The Russians were next given a concession to cut timber along the Yalu and soon after, on their asking the privilege of the use of the port of Yengampo in using this concession, it was granted.

As is well known, Japan and the foreign powers now urged the opening of this port to all foreign trade, Russia opposing, and the Korean government steadily refused. When, in addition, they soon after refused also to open Wi Ju in accordance with the objections of Russia, it became quite evident that war alone would ever make Russia retire from Korean soil.

In October, Japanese merchants in Korea began calling in outstanding moneys and from this time on the Koreans were in daily, hourly suspense, awaiting the war which could bring, in any event, nothing but disaster and loss, the only thing which they might hope for, being a degree less of distress, humiliation and misery, in one case than the other. Their country was to be the spoil of war, as well as its probable seat, and devastation, rapine and bloodshed loomed darkly before them. The action of the Korean pawnbrokers, refusing to lend money at this time, added to the general distress, for many of the poor are obliged to pawn someof their belongings in the fall, in order to provide fuel and clothing for the winter, and it was now feared that an uprising against all foreigners would take place, so great was the excitement and discontent. Guards were called to the different Legations to protect their countrymen, and missionaries and others were warned to come in from the country. “There was a great deal of disaffection among the poorly paid Korean troops in Seoul. The Peddlers’ Guild were threatening and capable of any excess and the unfriendly attitude of Yi Yong Ik toward western foreigners except French and Russians was quite sufficient reason for these precautionary measures.”6

6Hulbert’s “History of Korea.”

It was at this time that an American vessel was sent to a northern port with a message from the Legation to the missionaries to come to Seoul, but while a few, for various very good reasons, did this, most of these devoted men and women decided to remain and brave what war might bring in order to encourage, help and comfort the native Christians.

The same unrest and excitement which were evident in Seoul, were felt in the country and a serious movement began in two southern provinces where it was reported that a formidable insurrection was brewing. Reports came from the north as well of the banding together of the disaffected, and many wealthy natives in Seoul began removing their valuables and families to the country.

And now the distraught and corrupt government took another step at the bidding of Russia, and quite in keeping with the traditions of the East and the self-defensive, evasive diplomacy of the weak. They announced a neutrality which seemed from subsequent developmentsto have been a mere pretense in order to keep Japan out. While this neutrality was being insisted upon the Japanese announced the arrest of Koreans at different times, said to be carrying messages from the Korean Emperor and his government to Russia, asking for aid in the form of troops and ammunition of war. This is not at all unlikely, yet such are the dark ways and devious devices of the East, that it would have been quite as possible for those who wished to make an excuse to prove that the neutrality was a mere pretense, to have made it, if necessary. There is nothing more certain, however, than that at that time the Korean government was at heart wholly pro-Russian, of whatever overt acts she may or may not have been guilty in breaking her neutrality. Whatever were the facts, a most laudable excuse for the direct invasion of her neighbors’ soil was now presented to Japan.

The beginning of 1904 was marked by the making of Japanese military stations every fifteen miles between Fusan and Seoul and the sending of a well-known Japanese general to Seoul as military attaché to the Japanese Legation. Notices were posted in the city assuring Koreans that their property and personal rights would be respected, promising immediate justice if any complaint were made, and from this time on Chemulpo harbor was blocked. Korean students had previously been recalled from Japan and now the Japanese began rapidly landing troops in two southern ports of Korea. After the battle of Chemulpo, which soon took place, the Japanese landed all their troops further north and work was rapidly pushed on the Seoul-Fusan railway and also begun on the road to Wi Ju.

On February 23d a protocol was signed by Japan and Korea, by virtue of which Korea practically allied herselfwith Japan. She granted the latter the right to use her territory as a road to Manchuria and engaged to give them every possible facility for prosecuting the war. On the other hand, Japan guaranteed the independence of Korea and the safety of her imperial family. It was, of course, on Korea’s side a case of necessity, though many Koreans really accepted the Japanese as their friends and believed they would preserve their independence. However, willy-nilly, there was nothing to do under the circumstances but to acquiesce for the time being, though the government and court were still assured that Russia would undoubtedly be the ultimate victor and the Russians were continually making use of corrupt Korean officials who served only to complicate affairs with Japan.

It is more than doubtful whether this protocol, backed by arms, wrung out of the unwilling Koreans, was ever worth the paper on which it was written, even to keep up appearances to a people so unsophisticated at that time as the Koreans. The Japanese were ready at almost any moment during the war to enforce it and punish its violation, and the native government were very likely quite as ready to avail themselves of every opportunity which might offer to break it openly, could either Russia or China have been depended on to assist. But let us not forget that these were the acts of a corrupt government and not of the people, and that their sprightly neighbor had long odds, thanks to the almost forcible opening of their country thirty years earlier.

Mr. Hulbert says, “The Japanese handled the situation in Korea with great circumspection,” which they certainly did. The expected punishment did not fall on the pro-Russian officials. The perturbation of the court was quieted and Marquis Ito was sent with friendlymessages to the Emperor. The northern ports of Wi Ju and Yonganpo were opened and soon Yi Yong Ik who was a large factor in the conspiracies against Japan was invited to visit that country. The Japanese soldiers were remarkably orderly and well behaved, a great contrast in this respect to the Cossacks and Russian guard who had been at the Legation, who conducted themselves most outrageously, so that they won the hate and fear of the whole native community, and the disgust and horror of all western foreigners.

The Japanese soldiers, we are told by Mr. Hulbert, all belong to the upper middle classes. “No low class man can stand in the ranks,” and this being the fact, the wide difference between their behavior and that of the colonists can be well understood. Suffice it to say that in the main they did great credit to their country and their conduct reassured the Koreans and won for them as a rule tolerance and often real good will.

However, the reforms which the pro-Japanese had so hopefully expected did not come. The monetary affairs about which the Japanese had complained as being so bad were not altered when they came into power, and in addition they now began to demand all sorts of privileges which became no small hardship to the Koreans. In Fusan the Japanese Board of Trade asked their government to secure the maritime customs service, permission for extra territorial privileges, the establishment of Japanese agricultural stations, etc.

In the meanwhile the tide of Japanese immigration was daily rising higher and higher as to quantity, but the friends of Japan would certainly like to think that the people who came could have represented only her worst classes. This is not the place, nor are missionaries the people to animadvert upon them or their conduct;nor perhaps did it seem possible with the war on their hands at first, and a hostile native people to keep in check later, for the few Japanese officials to look into the cases brought before them, and deal out justice to their own offending countrymen. But I do say that had they been able to do so, their task in Korea would be an easier one to-day, for Koreans are a long-suffering people. Moreover, when loud complaints concerning the Koreans’ unwillingness to yield to “legally constituted authority” (?) are heard, let the reader bear in mind that this same “legally constituted authority” seldom, if ever, so far as the writer is aware, has protected the Korean in his rights, or made him safe and inviolate in his home, when a home was left to him. We are not accusing the Japanese. They have undertaken a difficult task, in which older and more civilized, more Christian nations have failed, and when we look at Poland and elsewhere, we do not see that they are more to be blamed than the illustrious examples they have followed, but we do say, “Do not judge the Korean too hardly if he rises in self defense to do what he can to make reprisals on invaders and to defend his own rights.”

In connection with the laying of the railroads, large tracts of some of the best land in the country were practically confiscated, and in Seoul large blocks of the most valuable property in the city were taken at a merely nominal price, and hundreds of people lost practically all they had in the world. In the north, where soldiers were quartered on Koreans, many of the women, whose custom it is never to be seen by strangers, fled to the mountain recesses at a most inclement season and incurred untold suffering. Still the Koreans bore all these trials with remarkable patience and few complaints.

Many, however, of the malcontents and those who had suffered loss joined the robbers, and large bands made frequent and destructive raids upon the smaller towns and villages, adding to the general distress of the poor people who actually had no one to look to but the missionaries and Americans whom they regarded as their only friends, who could do little enough, alas, to help, but who could point them to God who pities the helpless, and bid them hope in Him.

Although many of the best Koreans who had trusted in the Japanese had been disappointed to see none of the promised reforms, great was their added anger and alarm when on the seventeenth of June the Japanese authorities made the suggestion “that all uncultivated land in the Peninsula as well as all other national resources should be open to the Japanese. The Koreans now indeed raised a storm of protest. The time was unpropitious. Koreans recognized that the carrying out of this would result in a Japanese protectorate, though the latter had probably not believed the Koreans capable of following out the logic of this.”7

7Hulbert’s “History of Korea.”

They however, not being prepared at that time to carry matters to extremes, after repeated attempts at a compromise, at length temporarily dropped it.

The Koreans, in order to oppose the encroachments of the Japanese, had organized a society “for the promotion of peace and safety” (Po an Whai) and many exciting discussions took place as to how to defeat the purposes of the Japanese, while continually a stream of memorials poured in to the Emperor, beseeching him not to yield to the demands of the invaders. The latter, therefore, forcibly broke in on one of the meetings and carried leading members to the police station, and atother times raided the meeting-place, arrested other members and confiscated their papers. They further warned the Korean government that these doings must be firmly put down, and insisted that those who kept on sending memorials against the Japanese must be arrested and punished. The position of the Emperor at that time, as ever since, was certainly not an enviable one, and then if ever was it true that “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Indeed the poor Korean Emperor’s crown was sitting very loosely just then and there seemed no way in sight to keep it from rolling quite away.

Japanese troops in Seoul were increased at this time to six thousand. The members of the Po an Whai, on the other hand, sent circular letters throughout the country. News spreads in a marvellous way in Korea, faster than by mail, almost as by telegraph the human wireless flies from mouth to mouth, from hand to hand, and thousands of members were enrolled in every province.

In August Japanese military authorities asked for six thousand coolies to work on the railroad at handsome wages, but the report got out that these men were to be on the fighting line. Perhaps they distrusted their employers, but, whatever the reason, only two thousand men could be obtained and there were frequent bloody fights in the villages when the effort was made to force men to work.

The tide of public opinion was now running high against them on account of the waste land measure and the violation of the right of free speech, which had hitherto rarely been interfered with by their own government in spite of all its faults.

The Po an Whai still continued to carry on its propaganda, so the Japanese started another, called the IlChin society, protected by Japanese police and having only such members as were properly accredited by them; and following this another society was organized as the Kuk Min or National People’s Club. Although their plans were good, having no means whereby to carry them out they were laughed at by some, but nevertheless they served to strengthen and unify patriotic feeling, develop progressive ideas, and sow broadcast through the land a general desire for advance and reform; to bid the people awake to the dangers threatening them and to stir up a general spirit of inquiry as to the best method to strengthen their country and finally deliver her. Perhaps not much wisdom was wasted here. The members were all more or less ignorant of such things, of almost anything, in fact, but Chinese classics, but nevertheless a beginning must always be made, and this was at least something.

And now in connection with the societies and the universal cry of “Kaiwha”—progress—one began to see everywhere a distressing admixture of foreign and native dress. Koreans had been for some time cutting their hair. Now hundreds were wearing foreign caps and shoes which with their own long white coats gave the painfully ridiculous appearance of some one going abroad in night attire, having stopped only for foot and head gear. Some wore no coats at all but very gaily colored foreign vests, with their baggy white trousers below. The transition stage in the dress of eastern peoples is sad to a degree to the foreigner who loves them and holds their dignity and respectability dear as his own. The more he cares for the people the more bitterly does he resent the harrowing and pitiful variety of incongruities evolved by the natives in their zealous efforts to imitate the foreigner.

Thus progress and pro-Japanese societies—names by some considered synonymous—multiplied, but the poor common people were as sheep without a shepherd, a prey to the wolves and robbers on all hands.

During that summer the Japanese made their first suggestions that Korea should recall her foreign representatives and that all Korean diplomatic business be transacted through the Japanese Legation. This was not, however, pushed at this time, but was simply a forecast of what was in store.

A little later a Mr. Stevens,8an American citizen, was nominated by them as adviser to the Korean foreign office. This was a move of great discernment, for Americans have always been particularly favored by the Korean court and people from the Emperor to the coolie, and the advice of an American would meet a far readier hearing at that time than that of a Japanese. This man, being the Japanese appointee and dischargeable only by them, was more than likely, as it chanced, to advise Koreans according to the wishes of the Japanese, indeed, for what other purpose could his patrons have placed him there?

8On March 23, 1908, a Korean member of the Religious Army attempted to assassinate Mr. Stevens at San Francisco, wounding him so seriously that he died a few days later.

In accordance with this advice the Korean Emperor disbanded and dismissed most of the fifty thousand troops he then had under arms, as he was reminded they were a needless expense. The Japanese had assured Korea’s independence and a small body-guard was all that was needed.

About this time, partly in response to the fast growing feeling of the Koreans themselves that one of their heaviest drawbacks was a lack of knowledge of Westernsciences, a number of foreigners, including nearly all the missionaries, formed an educational association of Korea, their object being to prepare text-books for Korean schools. A little later a large number of Koreans also founded an educational society which did not attempt to do with politics but gathered together those who believed education must be one of the important factors in putting Korea on her feet.

In September, 1904, the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Protestant Missions was celebrated.

The Seoul-Fusan Railroad was completed during this year and the Seoul-Wi Ju Railroad well under way, and although they were put through in the interests of the Japanese, missionaries cannot but believe that unconsciously they were the agents of the Almighty making straight paths for His own kingdom. The missionaries of the Cross were, with the Japanese troops, the first people to use these roads while they were still in construction.

As the year advanced Japanese kept at work gathering the material resources of the country. The offices of the high Japanese officials were said to be literally besieged by their insistent countrymen who had no doubt come to Korea to make a great fortune one and all under the ægis of their own victorious troops and there is little doubt that the task of these officials, between their own rapacious nationals on the one hand and the Koreans who must be kept quiet for a time at least, till the army had done with Russia, was not too easy. Fishing rights along the whole coast were demanded and given, and next trading and riparian rights were seized.

The signing of the treaty of peace with Russia was the signal for a still more active policy in Korea, and thenimmediate steps were taken for the establishment of a protectorate.

It is a well understood and by a certain class of politicians well practised proverb that “To the victor belong the spoils,” and had Japan simply seized Korea at this time, it would neither have surprised nor greatly shocked the world at large, or the readers of universal history. But the somewhat clumsy attempt to place the Koreans in the position of suing for this, was on the part of the usually astute Japanese a strange proceeding. It seems as incredible that they could have expected to hoodwink the world as it was unnecessary. They may have wished to produce a certain impression, to create a given effect on the large party among their own best people who desired the practical independence of Korea to be preserved and faith kept with them. Whatever their reasons, the sheep’s clothing was inadequate, and the grim fact was only too patent to those who were concerned to know about the matter.

Early in the autumn of 1905 the Emperor had been approached with the suggestion of a protectorate. He was willing to recognize Japanese predominance in Korea, even acquiesced in Japanese advisorships, but when it came to turning the whole country over he refused. He knew that if he remained firm it could not be done without arousing indignation and perhaps some interference in his favor. He determined to lodge a protest at Washington, turning naturally, as all Koreans do, first to America and England, but England’s treaties with Japan were so sweeping that he knew it would be useless to look there. America’s treaty, however, has the following clause, “That if either of the contracting parties is injured by a third party, the other shall interfere with her good offices to effect an amiable settlement.” Thiscould not be done through the regular channel of the Foreign Office, as the before mentioned American agent of the Japanese was in charge there. A personal and private letter was therefore sent direct to the President, asking him to investigate and help. This message was carried by an American resident, but the Japanese, probably surmising what was being done, hurried on the completion of their plans. Marquis Ito was sent to Seoul with definite instructions. Korea was to be induced or forced to sign away her existence “voluntarily” (?).

Though many conferences with the Cabinet took place, there was no result. The Koreans stood fast for the treaty of 1904 in which Japan guaranteed independence. Not a member of the Cabinet consented. It is unnecessary to go into all the painful details, but at last by surrounding the Cabinet and the palace with soldiers, by having previously secured the consent of two or three men who were venal, after repeated efforts and long discussions, show of armed force and having forcibly removed Han Kyu Sul, the strong Prime Minister (without whose signature no measure can be legally passed) they managed to gain a majority of one, and the seal being illegally fixed by the envoy, the fact was declared accomplished and the authorities immediately announced in Washington that Korea had voluntarily entered into an agreement granting Japan a protectorate. The American government almost immediately recognized Japan’s claim and removed the Legation from Seoul. The petition of the Emperor arrived in Washington before action had been taken, but though its arrival was announced to the President, it was not received till too late.

“For twenty-five years American representatives andresidents had been reiterating that we stood for right against mere brute force, and Korea had a right to regard our government as the one above all others to demur at any encroachment on her independence. But when the time of difficulty approached we deserted her with such celerity, such cold-heartedness and such refinement of contempt, that the blood of every decent American citizen boiled with indignation. While the most loyal, patriotic, cultured of Korean nobility were committing suicide one after another, because they would not survive the death of their country, the American Minister (Mr. Morgan) was toasting the perpetrators in bumpers of champagne, utterly indifferent to the death throes of an empire which had treated American citizens with a courtesy and consideration they had enjoyed in no other Oriental country.”9

9Hulbert’s “Passing of Korea.”

News of this action was carried that night to the editors of one of the Korean dailies. They worked all night, well knowing that the result of their action would be confiscation of their presses and imprisonment at least, but thousands of copies of the paper containing a detailed report of all that had happened were in the hands of the people scattered broadcast beyond possibility of recall before the Japanese were aware. Every effort was made to destroy this publication and to prevent the spread of this story to other countries but it was too late. Members of the Cabinet and Court told the story to Americans, and though there existed a rigid censorship of telegraph lines and mails, it was carried by foreigners to China, so that even in the minds of those who lend the most willing ear to the story told by the Japanese, there must always remain at least a moiety of doubt.

When, as soon as the fact of the protectorate was announced,the American Legation was so suddenly removed, there went up as it were a great cry from the heart of the people, “Et tu, Brute.” It seemed the seal of their misfortunes, the certainty that their best friend remorselessly and with hopeless finality had deserted them.

Strong men were sobbing, moaning, crying like women or little children. Many committed suicide. Shops were closed with emblems of mourning. A nation was in sackcloth and ashes, on its face in the dust. It was a bitter hour for Korea and for the humiliated Americans who for once were not proud of their government so far as its policy in Korea was concerned. Well was it for the cowards who had signed the agreement that when they ventured through the streets it was with a strong guard of Japanese, for the people would have torn them to pieces, and as it was, numerous attempts were made on their lives. One of them attempted or pretended to attempt suicide, and to this step they were all advised by their compatriots. Japanese troops and artillery were paraded through the capital, with great show of power. Heavy guards were stationed at various points, though no attempt at resistance was made by the unarmed, unorganized, uncaptained mass of the citizens, against the victorious conquerors of Russia. Pro-Japanese societies and clubs suddenly collapsed. The party that had believed all along that Japan would keep her treaty and help Korea maintain her independence, was now disillusioned, horror-struck and indignant. The missionaries unanimously did all in their power to quiet the unhappy people, to prevent useless uprisings and bloodshed, and to comfort them in their sore distress. Some of them were inclined to resent these efforts to prevent revolt and to think and say that these missionaries were falsefriends who did not care for the welfare of the nation. Who could blame them for casting such a reproach upon us, when our own government had deserted them without even a word of commiseration or regret?

To add to the distress an epidemic of malarial fevers with typhus and typhoid, took place, on account of the way in which the city drains had been closed. The city had always been drained by open ditches which empty into a large drain flowing out under the walls. These small ditches were, in addition, periodically cleaned out by men who gather fertilizers; and, purified by sun and air, and washed out by the rains, they were not so great a source of evil as they looked. But the new-comers, by way of reform, and with the inevitable eye to appearances, ordered all these ditches covered. A protest, private and public, went up from every physician in Seoul. Appeals were made, but in vain. The ditches were covered with boards and sod and left to ferment and breed countless colonies of germs, with the result just mentioned.

Japanese colonists were still pouring into the country by thousands10and the class who came, and came as conquerors, was such (as has been noted) as to entail inevitable hardships on the natives. There is an impression abroad that all Japanese are now civilized. This is a great mistake. While in the cities there are large schools and universities of Western learning, it must be remembered there are forty million of people, most of whom live in the country and are very poor, who have never been touched by the wave of civilization that has swept over Tokio, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagasaki and the great cities. They are little if any different from their grandfathersas Commodore Perry found them, and their customs of dress, their ideas as to the seclusion of women, their morals, their habits of thought, their animus is in every way diametrically opposite to that of the Koreans. Easier would it be to mix oil and water than these peoples.

10There are now over 100,000 Japanese in Korea and they are coming at the rate of 50 to 100 a day (1908).

Some Japanese schools were started by the protectors but the Koreans were hardly prepared to profit by these, as the teaching was in Japanese, a language they could not understand, and yet it has been said that the Koreans did not care for education and were not willing or fit to make use of the advantages offered them.

But every little village has its schools, and among the Christians nearly every little group has its self-supporting parochial school, where the elements of Western learning are taught and the people are eagerly begging American missionaries for colleges and high schools which, as fast as provided, are thronged with students and could be easily thronged were the capacity doubled. The attitude of the people toward Christianity is stated in another chapter. Let it suffice to say that now is the accepted time to push forward with the standard of the Cross in Korea.

A young woman graduate of one of our largest American women’s colleges wrote, “Of one thing I am certain, that Christianity is the force for good and for enlightenment in Korea, in spite of all that may be said concerning Japanese reforms, governmental, educational, social.”

Another writes from Korea: “The whole country is ripe for the picking. The direful political conditions have turned the people toward the missionaries and their message is the only succor in sight. The leaders are openly declaring that in Christianity alone is to be foundthe political and social salvation of the nation. In their extremity the Koreans are ready to turn to the living God. It may not be so two years hence.Conditions of which I dare not write are changing the character of Korea.11If the Christian Church has any conception of strategy and appreciation of opportunity, any sense of relative values, she will act at once—not next year, butnow.”

11Morphine is being introduced with fearful success by Japanese, hundreds of immoral characters are plying their trade and the character of the people seriously changed.L. H. U.

Just before the meeting of The Hague the Emperor decided to send an appeal thither for Korea. He was warned that if he did so it would result in his death or abdication, but he held firm. He replied that he knew that would be the case but that the appeal must be made. This was done and the abdication followed as predicted. Since then the rebellious among the people, many of those who have sore grievances, who have lost their homes, perhaps their all, and have been driven to desperation, have joined hands with the bandits, and form large companies of insurrectionists, called the Righteous Army, who keep up a kind of guerrilla warfare, giving the Japanese no rest.

A newspaper correspondent writes “The whole country is ablaze witheui-pyung(righteous soldiers.) Their professed object is to protest against Japanese rule and free the land from it.... As I take up to-day’s paper it reads ‘Modol (twenty miles west of Seoul) Dec. 7. Company fifty-one of the Japanese fought with one hundred and fifty rebels (eui-pyung) and drove them off. Su Won (twenty miles south of Seoul) Dec. 2.Eui-pyungentered the town, robbed, plundered and made off toward Namyang. Idong(twenty-five miles southeast of Seoul) Dec. 4.Eui-pyungentered and carried off the two chief men. Puk-chung (three hundred and seventy miles north of Seoul) Dec. 4. After much effort on the part of government (Japanese) troops, theeui-pyunghave been dispersed. Chechun (one hundred miles south of Seoul) Dec. 2. Three hundredeui-pyungwere followed, brought to a fight and thirteen killed. Changyim (seventy miles north of Seoul) Dec. 1. Fiftyeui-pyungwere encountered and in the fight six were killed. Eumsung (thirty miles southeast of Seoul) Dec. 4. An attack was made on theeui-pyung, two were killed and five wounded,’ etc.”

“All the while every Japanese wayfarer is marked, followed and done to death. Theeui-pyungare everywhere. In the twinkling of an eye they gather, they separate. To-day five hundred are here. To-morrow no one knows where they have been spirited away to. Seoul and the larger cities alone are safe from their attack.... The task before the government grows daily more formidable.”

It has been reported that along the line of some of the railways the Japanese have been obliged to establish a continuous line of fortified posts with resident troops to prevent the constant destruction of the bridges and road bed by theeui-pyung, but in these reports coming from the government we are not told the numbers of their troops killed and wounded in these encounters, presumably too small to be worth mentioning. It is nevertheless evident that there is in the minds of a large number of Koreans objection to the present order which they are taking this means of recording.

As for the large body of Christians, they remain the most orderly, reliable and peaceable of the whole nativepopulation. The missionaries, one and all, whether from a wish to uphold Japanese rule, or a desire to save useless bloodshed, are unanimous in using all their influence to quiet the Christians and to induce them to prevent uprisings and revolts, and after the abdication the Christians in Pyeng Yang went through the streets counselling forbearance and patience.

These Christians are, however, no less patriotic than their more demonstrative compatriots. They are eager for progress, for education, for uplift, because they believe and openly declare that in Christian education and Christianity alone is to be found the political and social salvation of the country.

They are seeking “Kaiwha” more diligently than ever, and they are learning that progress and civilization do not consist in altering the cut and color of a man’s coat or the length of his hair; that it is not a matter of tramways, wide streets, tall houses, gunboats, well drilled armies, factories, arts, luxuries, hideous European clothes, etc. Most Eastern countries have all or many or some of these things, but even where they are in greatest profusion one feels that something is wanting. It is as like true civilization as a graphophone is like the true voice of a friend. There is a hollow, brassy ring about it. It does not come from a warm, livingheartbut is only a poor caricature out of an empty shell. They are learning that true civilization is not a veneer; it is the solid ringed growth of centuries reaching its leaves and blossoms unto Heaven. Some of its outgrowths are the things these people copy so marvellously in paper and wax that we can scarcely tell the difference.

At a great fête given in an Eastern city they built most cunningly out of boards and canvas a grand old tree; they painted it with wonderful skill and crownedit with paper leaves and blossoms. It was a marvel whereat the world stood open mouthed for a day, but the rain descended and the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon the tree and it fellfor it had no roots.

The Korean Christians are learning fast, we hope, that better civilization of which our dictionaries give but one or two definitions: “The humanization of man in society; the satisfaction for him in society of the true law of human nature,” and “The lifting up of men mentally, morally and socially.”

This never was, never will be done by tramways and new clothes. It can never be brought about by armies and men of war. It will not follow in the train of art and of luxuries, though they follow it. Men, however well dressed and well informed, may be after all no better than the manufactured tree, without thevital principle of lifethat is in Christianity to “lift them up mentally, morally and socially” above the material and sensual and hold them there unshakenly rooted in the rock.

They are learning that all that is best in Western civilization, the motor power that stirs the energies of men and brings out the choicest results is Christian faith and love. Christian principle, and that where this principle is implanted, this spirit breathed, there is a civilization made or making, for the choice things of which heathenism has often not even a word whereby they may be expressed. Test them by such words as God, Heaven, Home, Love, Faith or Sin—where do they stand?

This is the reason that to-day Korean statesmen are saying that in Christianity is the only hope for Korea’s national salvation.

And here let me quote Dr. J. D. Davis of Kyoto who says, “If this work of Christianity can go on unchecked and unchilled Korea will be rapidly evangelized and filledwith millions of happy, enlightened Christian homes and this little kingdom, despised though it has been, will give to the world a priceless example of the way and the only way that the Gospel can be carried to the whole world during the present generation.”

Again Mrs. Curtis, another American missionary to the Japanese, writes, “By God’s blessing, within the next ten years, if the Church in America will do its part, this whole nation (Korea) may be reached with the Gospel. Korea is fast becoming Christian, and, if Japan does not soon respond to God’s call to her, there is the prospect of a Christian people, producing the first-fruits of true life, brought under the sway of a nation yet dead, who have appropriated the fruits of centuries of Christian growth, but who refuse to share the life which alone can make those fruits sweet and wholesome and bring them to perfection. A Christian nation ruled by another whose real God is National Glory! It will be laid to the charge of the Christian Church if this becomes a fact. Every man and woman who is ‘looking for the kingdom of God’ and faithfully seeking to hasten its coming ought to consider this.”12

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