Various

“ Korea, on her side, received the solemn pledge of Japan to uphold her independence and to work for her welfare.
To review the successive steps of the policy which Japan has pursued in Korea since the ratification of that agreement is not a particularly agreeable task. It must always be borne in mind that the Japanese are working under a terrible strain. Hundreds of thousands of their people are perishing on the battle field and millions of treasure are being poured out to secure to the Japanese nation a guarantee of continued existence. ”

“ But we would like to inquire what Japan has done for the common people of Korea that is any way comparable with England’s work for the Fellahin of Egypt. We would not for a moment disparage the splendid work that Japan has done along the line of railway construction and of general trade in Korea but when anyone reports the condition of affairs here in such terms that England’s peaceful achievement’s in Egypt and India seem to be thrown into the shade, then we are compelled to interpose a decided negative. Are the people of Egypt governed better than before the English occupation? ”

“ Whatever happens to the official ranks of Korea, we protest that the common people should be left unmolested and that their personal liberty and their property rights should not only not be impaired but, under the influence of the more enlightened power of Japan, they should be more carefully preserved than they ever have been under purely native control. ”

“ I was told by the Koreans whom we had with us, that if on the mainland a man made his wife to do so he would be driven out of the village. Native hats, hair bands and skull-caps, which are extensively manufactured on the island are also mostly made by women. In fact the women of Quelpart might be called the Amazonians of Korea. They not only do all the work but greatly exceed the men in number, and on the streets one meets three women to one man. This is because so many men are away sailing. The women are more robust and much better looking than their sisters on the mainland. ”

“ It is a life and death struggle and when a man is in the midst of such a struggle we do not expect from him the niceties of courtesy which we should expect from him at other times. There have been many criticisms of Japan’s course in Korea during the past year. She is charged with having done little or nothing to stem the tide of official corruption, that she has not bent her energies to the bettering of the condition of the common people, that nothing has been effected in the line of currency reform. ”

“ Public opinion is a mighty agency either for good or ill, but the only way it can be legitimately used is by feeding it upon cold, hard facts. That is what makes the difference between public opinion in England, and in Russia. So we hope that this new periodical will hunt assiduously for facts, and give them to us. We would rather have one column of facts about Korea than ten columns of clippings from abroad. For this reason we are pleased to see that the management of the Seoul Press intends to increase gradually its staff of reporters and correspondents throughout the peninsula. ”

“ All the rest of the island belongs to nobody and anyone may come and cut the trees or cultivate the ground. An oxload of wood which a man has to bring on his ox for ten or fifteen miles is sold in the cities for twelve cents. Of the cereals raised on the island millet takes the first place, and this is the main article of diet. Rice is a luxury and is eaten only by well-to-do people in the cities. In the villages the people never use it. This is on account of the scarceness of rice fields, of which there are only a few along the coast. The little rice there is mostly brought from the mainland. ”

“ To think that only a few miles of track require to be laid before this stupendous piece of work is completed is almost enough to take one’s breath away. A few years ago it was laughed at as being the dream of a fanatic. Today it is an accomplished fact. The dreams of yesterday are the realities of today. ”

“ We hear on all sides the statement that the Koreans have brought the present state of things upon themselves, but what we would like to know is the reason why Japan has not only failed to carry out needed reforms but has rendered future work in this time almost impossible by allowing an army of adventurers to come in and exasperate the people. We can see only two possible answers, either the Japanese government has concluded that reforms will not pay or else they are not fully aware of the actual conditions that prevail in Korea. ”

“ Every effort which the Japanese authorities or private citizens put forth for the benefit of the Korean people should be clearly and fully stated and full acknowledgement should be made, and if there are evils which need to be remedied they should be, in a kindly way, brought to the notice of the public so that an intelligent opinion can be formed as to the exact situation here. ”

“ American sympathy for Japan is based upon the belief that Japan stands for the “square deal,” and Americans believe the justice of Japan’s contention in this present war is based upon Russia’s departure from this principle. Whatever America’s good will may or may not mean to Japan, it will be lost if in the flush of victory the latter should take undue advantage of their power to despoil the Korean people of their territory either by seizure or by forced sale. ”

“ Of course the ideas of these progressives were excellent. What they proposed would have been for the good of the country, but they had no public sentiment behind them and their views were so radical as to bar them from the field of practical politics. It is not good statesmanship to attempt what is better than the best thing possible, and the mistake the Japanese made at that critical point was in supposing that the Korean people would fall in with a radical progressive policy. ”

“ Doubtless some of these stories are exaggerations but enough of them have been witnessed by foreigners of unquestioned veracity to establish the general fact. What we wonder at is that in the midst of a great war, in which all her energies are absorbed, Japan should allow the already difficult Korean problem to become complicated to such a painful degree by an influx of the less desirable element of their people into the peninsula. ”

“ All magistrates in the thirteen provinces had been warned not to receive nickels not coined by the government; but of late counterfeit coins have become so numerous that innocent people suffer greatly and cannot protect themselves. The government out of pity for the innocent have decided to accept coins whose quality and form compare favorably with government coins, even though they may be counterfeit.
No celebration in Korea in modern times has equaled that in Seoul on the 25th inst. at the formal opening of the Kei-Fu, or Seoul-Fusan Railway. ”

“ The daily press of Japan is constantly recording acts of generosity and kindness on the part of Japanese even toward Russian captives and we believe that if the more respectable class of Japanese should come to Korea the people would be treated justly and kindly. ”

“ No serious [172] attempt has been made to effect reforms, no one stands in the way of reforms, the people have been waiting for them and hoping against hope that reforms would be instituted, but so far as reforming this government for the sake of the Korean people is concerned there are few signs of a desire or determination to do so. Russia was severely blamed for making use of corrupt officials to carry out her schemes in Korea but we find today that Japanese are doing the very same thing in some parts of the country. ”

“ All the mountains as well as the hills to the east of it are covered with thick woods of oak. In these forests deer, wild hogs, hares and other animals abound but there are no tigers or bears. The hills that have no trees on them, are covered with the peculiar short Korean grass which makes such fine lawns. This grass is much prettier in Quelpart than anywhere on the mainland and often one comes across natural lawns four or five hundred yards square, with not a weed on them and all covered as with a heavy velvet carpet. ”

“ Mr. Cho Min Huy, Korean Minister to Japan, has been notified by the Foreign Office to return to Seoul. A reply has been received that Mr. Cho is seriously ill, but will return after his recovery.
The governor of North Pyeng An province reports to the Foreign Office that the prefect of Kang Kai has received a demand from the Japanese army for two thousand oxen, to be delivered on the border of China, five hundred miles distant. He bitterly complains because of the difficulty in securing the oxen and the hardship imposed on the people during the cultivation season. ”

“ Besides millet, rice and Irish potatoes, the people raise barley, wheat, buckwheat, beans, sweet potatoes, tobacco, vegetables and a few other less important cereals. Of fruits peaches, oranges and pomeloes are the only things that grow there. Of animal food the islanders, like the people of the mainland, eat very little. It consists of beef, horse and dog meat, pork, game, fish and pearl oysters. Crabs, common oysters and all the different kinds of clams that are so plentiful on the southern and western coast of Korea are absent in the Quelpart waters. ”

“ She was young and impressionable and favorably impressed by the Japanese. Behind her was the Min faction, strong, ambitious, selfish, tenacious of its prerogatives. That faction was itself impressionable. It recognized that a new era was opening, that the policy of the Regent had been cast aside. It felt the incentive of national independence and was ready and willing to undertake the responsible work of leading the nation into these new and untrodden paths ”

“ Japanese diplomacy did all it could during this period to stem the rising tide of Chinese influence, but the Queen was so constituted mentally that having once conceived a thorough dislike for any person or policy it was well-nigh impossible to change. From the time when the Japanese, in 1884, helped the progressives in their attempt to wrest the power from the hands of the Queen’s faction there was no peace between her and the Japanese. ”

“ The Koreans will have to learn by hard experience just as the Japanese themselves did between 1868 and 1880. The stories that are told of old worn-out steam-ships sold to the Japanese at high figures in those days would fill a small volume. The Korean must also learn by his failures. We believe that in this school he will develop a fair degree of ability to take care of himself. ”

“ The great public works put through solely for the benefit of the people of Egypt have absolutely no counterpart whatever in this country. The railway was a war measure which will benefit the people of Korea, but such help was a secondary consideration entirely. ”

“ This must be so if something like a million young men have been taken away to the seat of war. But if it is so how does it come about that thousands upon thousands of Japanese are flocking into Korea? It must be because they consider their opportunities better here than in the home country. But just at the present crisis they are doing their own land a double injury, first by further depleting the supply of labor there and secondly by complicating the already sufficiently difficult Korean problem. ”

“ The Home Department has written to all the provinces to the effect that many of the laws are being disobeyed and people without means of livelihood are wandering about the country accompanying powerful Koreans or foreigners and tempting young people to sell or pawn their rice fields or other property, generally in secret and then spend the proceeds in riotous living. ”

“ They can be seen displayed in the native grocery shops in Seoul, flat reddish disks about four inches in diameter fastened by tens with a thin stick stuck thro them.
Of the seaweeds there are several different kinds: some of them are used as fertilizers, some are used for food and some are sold to the Japanese for making carbonate of soda. The first kind is gathered on the seashore, but the other two have to be obtained from the bottom of the sea. It is strange to say that the diving for these weeds as well as for the pearl oysters is entirely done by women. ”

“ In the Chunju district the magistrate has been requested to furnish one hundred and thirty men daily for work on the Japanese railway with a daily wage of seventy cents. It is very difficult to take the men from their fields during the sowing and cultivating season, and if the fields are neglected the crops will be a failure. The magistrate asks the government what he shall do. ”

“ The magistrates told us that these Japanese never asked for permission nor paid anything for catching the pearl oysters. If it is so, the imposition upon the weak Koreans is surprising.
The Quelpart women not only dive for weeds and oysters but do the largest part of all work. Even ox loads of grain are brought to the city market for sale by women. The carrying of the water is done entirely by the women, who have often to go a long distance to fetch it. ”

“ The governor of North Choong Chung asks the Home Department to see that all magistrates residing in Seoul be sent to the country at once, because robbers are numerous and the people cannot peacefully attend to their crops. ”

“ Except for a shop here and there in which a man is presiding with a long pipe in his mouth, it is very difficult to find a man doing anything. For this, however, they are not any better off, as all the islanders seem to be strikingly poor. Not only the food, but the clothes and houses are much worse than on the mainland. Dog skins are extensively used for making clothes. Hats, the shape of a tea-cup, overcoats, leggings, like those worn by the Chinese, and stockings are all made of dog skin with the hair outside, which for greater warmth are used untanned. ”

“ Up to this time people had not greatly favored either the Chinese or Japanese influence but if anything were inclined toward the latter. But now the ruling faction turned wholly toward China and with it went the mass of the people. The common people did not understand nor appreciate the ideals of the progressives, and the death of seven government ministers effectually weaned away what little fealty they had given to the progressive cause. ”

“ We feel sure that this publication will meet a very decided need in our community and the fact that it is not a party organ nor committed to any faction makes it doubly valuable. We shall expect to see facts published, whoever may be pleased or displeased thereby. Almost all the news that foreign papers in Japan get about Korea is taken from the reports in native papers, from Japanese reporters in Korea. They thus get but one side of the story. The world wants to know what is being done in Korea not mere statements of plans and theories. ”

“ This series of events convinced the Koreans that Japan was unable to effect the changes which were necessary in order to prepare for the real progress of the country, and they also demonstrated to the Western world that however capable Japan may have been in leading her own people toward civilization and enlightenment she lacked the peculiar power necessary to the handling of an alien people. ”

“ Besides skin hats the men also use felt hats of the same shape as those worn by the Seoul chair coolies, only much larger, the brims measuring more than two feet in diameter. The one exception in respect of clothes is made by the people in the magistracies who wear the same white clothes and black hats as the people on the mainland. ”