CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION ON CHINA 
 
 AND THE CHINESE 
 
DS 916.D66"" """"""'' '■''"'"' 
 
 ^"^liMi'iniiiiiiiliimi^ :presented to Foreign A 
 
 3 1924 023 276 243 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023276243 
 
BRIEFS FOR KOREA 
 
 PRESENTED TO 
 
 FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF 
 REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 . AND TO THE 
 
 FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE OF THE SENATE 
 OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 PREPARED BY 
 
 MR. FRED A. DOLPH 
 
 COUNSELLOR TO THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA 
 
 ( t'fxKI I I 
 
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 10 
 
THE KOREAN QUESTION 
 
 Pending before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House on 
 Resolution, introduced by Mr. Mason, of Illinois, viz : House Resolu- 
 tion No. 359, introduced October 24, 1919, reading : 
 
 Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the United 
 States express its sympathy with the aspirations of the Korean 
 People for a Government of their own choice. 
 
 BRIEF FOR KOREA 
 
 Submitted by Mr. Fred A. Dolph, Counsellor to the Republic of 
 Korea. 
 
 The original brief on the Korean Question, prepared for the For- 
 eign Relations Committee of the United States Senate, particularly 
 referred to the relations between Japan and Korea. That brief was 
 printed in the Congressional Record under date of September 19, 1919. 
 
 The present brief, prepared primarily for the Foreign Affairs 
 Committee of the House, has particular reference to the relations be- 
 tween the United States and Korea, which are deemed quite as essen- 
 tial to an understanding of the whole Korean question. 
 
 The United States was the aggressor in trying to secure recogni- 
 tion from Korea, only a few years ago. All our efforts in that direc- 
 tion prior to 1882 had been unsuccessful. Up to that time we had sent 
 five naval expeditions to Korea for that purpose ; four in command of 
 Commodore Shufelt, and one other which was quite pretentious was 
 the naval escort for Mr. Low, former Minister to China. 
 
 In all of these five attempts, which were failures, we used the same 
 methods that had been successfully used by Perry in opening Japan, 
 but here was a nation of different temper. It was found that force or 
 display of force could not be used without loss of life and international 
 complications. As it was, we had lost one ship with its crew and had 
 retaliated by reducing the Koreans' forts that were within range of 
 our ships' guns, and it was one of the sensational questions of the day 
 as to whether we had the right to do all that. 
 
 In any event, it was finally decided to use a different course, and 
 in 1878, Senator Sargent, of California, introduced a Resolution in the 
 Senate authorizing the appointment of a commission to negotiate a 
 
treaty with Korea and recommending an appropriation of $50,000 for 
 that purpose. The following year Commodore Shufelt was sent as 
 Naval Attache to China, with orders not only to assist China but to 
 make a treaty with Korea. 
 
 The Commodore became a great friend of Li Hung Chang, then at 
 the height of his power in China and also at that time influential in 
 Korea, and through him and with his help the Treaty was finally nego- 
 tiated and signed by Commodore Shufelt and the Korean Envoys at 
 the little city of Yin Chuen, Korea, on May 22, 1882. 
 
 This was regarded as a great diplomatic feat and upon his return 
 to America, Commodore Shufelt was banqueted and acclaimed for his 
 great service to the United States in opening Korea. He was told that 
 this Treaty "would place his name in history beside that of Perry," 
 who had previously secured the recognition of Japan. 
 
 Hon. John Eussell Young, writing from the United States Lega- 
 tion at Pekin to Secretary of State Freylinghuysen, on December 26, 
 1882 (received February 2.3, 1883), says: 
 
 ' ' Taking everything into consideration the legation will hear 
 with pleasure that the Shufelt convention has been ratified. I 
 think it very important that the United States should have a 
 footing in Corea, and that having opened the door, we should 
 not close it or give any other power precedence." 
 
 The Treaty was promptly ratified by the United States Senate, 
 albeit with "mild reservations" and was formally signed by President 
 Arthur. The King of Korea accepted the reservations, and we lost no 
 time in sending a Minister to Korea, in the person of Mr. Foulke. 
 Korea reciprocated by sending a Commission to the United States, 
 which the President received with the usual ceremony ; and, as evidenc- 
 ing our exceeding good will and our anxiety to make a good impres- 
 sion upon Korea, the U. S. Warship Trenton was detailed to carry 
 these Korean diplomats back to their homes, after they had concluded 
 their mission. No other nation has ever been accorded the same cour- 
 tesies and attention. 
 
 For over twenty years this interchange of diplomatic relations 
 continued. During that time Americans built the first steam railroad, 
 the first electric street railway and the first electric light plant in 
 Korea. Water works were constructed at different points; gold and 
 coal mines were opened and operated, and all were equipped with 
 American machinery, designed by American engineers. Model Ameri- 
 can farms were established, and American built steamboats were pur- 
 
5 
 
 chased to ply in Korean waters. In short, a great American trade was 
 being developed. 
 
 Distinct progress was also being made along educational lines. 
 American educators were employed to install school systems. Ameri- 
 can physicians opened hospitals and medical schools, and Koreans by 
 the hundreds flocked to the United States to attend our schools and 
 colleges. 
 
 Korea, during that twenty years of close diplomatic relation with 
 the United States, enjoyed an era of prosperity and progress, with 
 American advice and help, that is without parallel in her history, either 
 before that period or since. Suddenly this all ceases. Japan inter- 
 venes and America is not permitted to have anything further to do 
 with Korea. Just why this should be is one of the vagaries of political 
 history. 
 
 The same National Grovernment for Korea — changed only from a 
 Monarchy to a Eepublic by will of the people and by acquiescence of 
 the Royal Family — that we were so anxious to make a Treaty mth 
 forty years ago, is now only asking that we exercise our good offices 
 under the provisions of the Treaty by at least expressing our sympathy 
 with the international justice of their cause. 
 
 They are fighting to return to that liberty and prosperity which 
 they enjoyed while diplomatically associated with us, and now ask that 
 we comply with the Treaty that we were at such pains to get and which 
 we practically forced upon them. 
 
 The Treaty with Korea, which we make but a "scrap of paper" 
 unless we fulfill our covenants, provides : 
 
 "If other Powers deal unjustly or oppressively with either 
 government, the other will exert their good offices, on being in- 
 formed of the case, to bring about an amicable arrangement, 
 thus showing their friendly feelings." 
 
 This Treaty has never been abrogated by direct act of the parties 
 thereto. The national records of both Korea and the United States 
 are silent on the subject. The diplomatic and commercial activities 
 between the United States and Korea suddenly stopped. The cause 
 is known, but we must examine the archives of other countries to find 
 the record. It is no mere coincidence that this happened at the same 
 time that England and Russia in separate treaties with Japan, made 
 within thirty days of each other in 1905, stipulated : 
 
 "Japan possessing paramount political military and eco- 
 nomic interests in Korea, the high contracting parties recognize 
 
the right of Japan to take such measures of guidance, control 
 and protection in Korea, as she may deem proper and necessary 
 to safeguard and advance those interests." 
 
 We were not party to either of those treaties and yet we have from 
 that time to this said nothing and done nothing. We have simply 
 abandoned Korea to her fate, and the awful fate it has been is a matter 
 of common knowledge and history. 
 
 Prior to that time we were very anxious to protect Korea and used 
 our "good offices" without stint. We held (see ruling of Secretary of 
 State Bayard, March 14, 1887), that 
 
 "By article XIV of the Treaty the United States, its public 
 officers, merchants and citizens are entitled to the most favored 
 nation treatment." 
 
 Insisting upon this construction of the Treaty in our behalf, we allowed 
 a liberal construction in favor of Korea and Korean rights, and on 
 many occasions we used our good offices in the protection of those 
 rights against oppression by others. We thought it worth while then, 
 and why not now? 
 
 In 1887 and 1888, when China was claiming some supervision over 
 the appointment of Envoys from Korea to the United States, insisting 
 that China should be consulted and that the Envoys should be intro- 
 duced through the Chinese Embassy, etc., there was a long diplomatic 
 correspondence in which Secretary of State Bayard sustained Korea 
 and overruled all of China's claims. Secretary Freylinghuysen, in a 
 previous ruling made June 9, 1883, had held : 
 
 "The existence of international relations between the two 
 countries (United States and Korea) as equal contracting par- 
 ties is an accepted fact." 
 
 Hon. Alvey A. Adee, who was Acting Secretary of State on July 
 9, 1895, in a letter to Mr. Sill, the United States Minister to Korea, 
 said: 
 
 "Your action in refusing to recognize that Korean inde- 
 pendence dates from the 6th day of June, 1895, is approved. 
 The position assumed by this government towards Korea since 
 contracting the Treaty with it in 1882 has in no wise been 
 effected by recent events. Korea's treaty independence since 
 then has been for us an established and accepted fact." 
 
 Just prior to Mr. Adee's ruling. Secretary of State Gresham at the 
 time of the threatened invasion of Korea by China in 1894, intervened 
 
under the "good offices" clause of the Treaty to protect Korea and all 
 through the Chinese-Japanese War preserved that same attitude, to 
 the extent of having Americans sit at the Peace Table at the time of 
 the conclusion of that war. (See Diplomatic Policy in the Orient by 
 Hon. John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State, page 333.) 
 
 • It is fair to assume that the United States was instrumental in, if 
 not responsible, for the provisions written into the Treaty between 
 China and Japan in 1895, which definitely recognized the independence 
 and territorial integrity of Korea by both Japan and China. At least 
 our representatives were at the Peace Conference for that purpose, to 
 protect Korea and to use our "good offices" under our own treaty with 
 Korea. 
 
 For twenty years we lived up to the letter and the spirit of our 
 Treaty with Korea and did what we had agreed to do, and Korea did 
 the same ; she poured out to us her raw materials and her wealth, that 
 she had, in return for our railroad and electric railway equipment and 
 machinery, our supplies, mining machinery, and other manufactured 
 articles, willingly and gladly, in full appreciation of our protection and 
 of our help and assistance economically. Suddenly, without cause, so 
 far as Korea is concerned, and without warning to Korea, we threw 
 up our agreement, abandoned Korea and withdrew all diplomatic 
 relations. 
 
 The reasons for maintaining relations with Korea are certainly 
 many fold stronger now than they were back in the eighties, when we 
 were so anxious to obtain a treaty with Korea and when we forced one 
 upon her. 
 
 Korea now furnishes one of the Pacific terminals for the longest 
 chain of railroads in the world. The Atlantic terminal is Paris and 
 the French harbor cities. Her mines and other natural resources have 
 been located and explored, and her people have been taught the value 
 of education and the Christian religion. She now has, according to 
 Japanese statistics, 3,264 Christian churches which average at least a 
 congregation of 300 each, because definite statistics from missionary 
 societies show congregations in large centers having as high as 1,800 
 members. Korea is the only Christian nation of the Orient, and is the 
 only nation to which we are now paying no attention. 
 
 In the matter of education she has progressed wonderfully since 
 that time, years ago, when Shufelt negotiated our Treaty. Thousands 
 of Koreans have become educated in our language and hundreds have 
 been graduated from our universities and colleges. It is said that as 
 large a percentage of the members of the Korean National Council, 
 
which corresponds to our Congress, are graduated from universities 
 and colleges of ours, as are our own Congressional representatives. 
 This suggests another thing : Korea is now a Republic with a govern- 
 ment framed as near as may be after our own. This is of itself a con- 
 clusive reason why we should continue to live up to our Treaty cove- 
 nants. 
 
 Japan took possession of Korea for selfish purposes ; in fact, no 
 other reasons are urged, except in a faint way, knowing that they will 
 not and can not be believed. The Japanese author, Asakawa, in his 
 book, the Russo-Japanese Conflict, assigns no other reasons, assuming 
 that it was all sufficient to say that Japan needed the country because 
 Korea had agricultural lands, and Japan had none to speak of. The 
 fact that Korea's agricultural lands were already occupied and culti- 
 vated by a Christian people seemed to be of little moment to him and 
 to the Japanese mind, in the face of that great reason, that Japan 
 needed the land. Another writer and publicist from Japan, Adach 
 Kimosuke, treats the subject with candor and frankness, at least. In 
 the October, 1907, number of the Review of Reviews (Volume 36), he 
 writes : 
 
 ' ' We shall be frank about it — we shall say that we are carry- 
 ing things with a high hand in Korea. We have gone into the 
 back yard of our neighbor and are telling him to kindly move on 
 simply because we need his home. We are doing just as the 
 Americans have done with the Indians, the rightful owners of 
 America; just as the Britons have done to the Hindus; just as 
 the Russians have done to the Tartars ; as Germany did in South 
 Africa, and France in Cochin China. Nippon has joined the 
 house of great powers. She has become civilized." 
 
 In the same spirit of frankness and candor the writer goes on to 
 say that the only blunder Japan made was that she did not annex 
 Korea in 1873, as advised by Saigo. At that time he says the other 
 Powers had not taken an interest in Korea, and America had not en- 
 tered into the situation. 
 
 Japan can not shield herself with the cloak that Kimosuke gives 
 her in his article in the Review of Reviews above quoted. She is not 
 doing what other nations have done. 
 
 Japan is taking a country and annihilating a people that she had 
 on many occasions recognized as worthy enough to be called indepen- 
 dent, and whose independence and territorial integrity she recognized 
 by treaty up to within less than four months of her pretended protec- 
 torate in 1905. 
 
9 
 
 No doubt all of these treaties are well remembered, but they are 
 again referred to for the sake of emphasis. The series of written trea- 
 ties between Japan and Korea began with 1876, and the following ex- 
 cerpts are quoted from each : 
 
 February 26, 1876 : 
 
 "Chosen (Korea) being an independent State enjoys the 
 same sovereign rights as does Japan." 
 
 July 14, 1894: 
 
 "1. That the independence of Korea was declared con- 
 firmed and established." 
 
 February 23, 1904: 
 
 "Art. III. The Imperial Government of Japan definitely 
 guarantees the independence and territorial integrity of the 
 Korean Empire." 
 
 The three following Treaties, dated August 22, 1904, April 1, 1905, 
 and August 13, 1905, related to certain economic concessions which 
 Japan asked from Korea. In those Treaties she dealt with Korea; 
 obtained contracts from her, and can not be permitted to say that the 
 country she dealt with and solemnly contracted with is incompetent. 
 An individual would be estopped under such circumstances, and cer- 
 tainly as between nations where even a higher degree of honor is pre- 
 sumed to prevail as between parties in relation to the solemnity and 
 effect of contracts, Japan would be estopped. 
 
 None of the other nations to which Kimosuke refers have ever 
 been guilty of in one breath solemnly declaring by treaty that "it 
 guarantees the independence and territorial integrity of a nation ' ' and 
 in the next taking possession of and annexing that nation; unless it 
 was in the case of Germany overrunning Belgium, and Germany has 
 had her punishment for that character of conduct. 
 
 But it is not alone by treaty that Japan has been compelled to 
 recognize the equality and even the superiority of Korea. Every basic 
 element of civilization that Japan has now she first obtained from 
 Korea. Korea was the teacher, and now the scholar having grown a 
 little taller, and a little more stalwart physically, asserts that he knows 
 more than his teacher. 
 
 The records and exhibits in our National Museum at New York 
 show that Koreans were the students and the originators of culture and 
 civilization in the Far East. Those records show that Koreans were 
 not only students but inventors. Suspension bridges were in use in 
 Korea hundreds of years before our bridge engineers attempted their 
 use. They used movable block type for printing four hundred years 
 
 
10 
 
 before Guttenberg was born. They defeated the Japanese in a naval 
 battle with the use of ironclads in 1597, nearly three hundred years 
 before the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac, and they had pro- 
 gressed so far in governmental affairs that they had a constitutional 
 monarchy centuries before the Magna Charta. The world owes the 
 discovery of gunpowder and the Mariner's Compass to Korea. And 
 why should Korea not have all these things with her years of experi- 
 ence? She has been an empire for eighteen centuries before the 
 foundation of Eome. 
 
 Of course, Japan's claim of superiority over Korea is but a cloak 
 to shield her selfishness. In any event, having made, and making, that 
 claim, she is subject to comparisons that are no exception to the rule 
 that "comparisons are odious." 
 
 Koreans, following the enlightened nations and peoples of the 
 earth, have embraced the Christian religion. Japan is a pagan nation 
 worshipping only the Mikado. 
 
 Koreans have organized their nation into a Republic governed by 
 the people and for the people. Japan is the last one of the autocracies. 
 Japan derives a revenue of $50,000,000 from licensed vice, and 
 Missionaries and others who are agitating against legalized vice are 
 being persecuted, tortured and punished by the Japanese government 
 for sedition, as interfering with their main governmental source of 
 revenue. They hold it a crime to even protest against such practices. 
 Before the advent of Japanese into Korea such things were unknown 
 there. 
 
 Japanese say that the Korean government was corrupt and that 
 they had to take possession in order to save it and protect the Korean 
 people against the rottenness of their own goverimaent. Their first act 
 of reform was to turn over all lands subject to reclamation to a Japa- 
 nese by the name of Nazaromi, giving him a monopoly for fifty years 
 without any money payment and without taxes for five years. In the 
 process of reclamation Nazaromi, was permitted to divert or dam up 
 water courses, with the result that more frequently than not he di- 
 verted water from cultivated rice fields to reclaim arid lands; then 
 when the former cultivated area became worthless from lack of water 
 and was abondoned by its Korean owners, Nazaromi claims that land 
 and recovers it for himself and his grafting associates by returning the 
 water course to its original channel. We find nothing so bold and bald 
 faced as that even in the extravagant. claims made by Japanese of 
 Korean corruption. 
 
 One Japanese writer goes to the extent of analyzing the Korean 
 
11 
 
 budget during the reign of the late Emperor. He points out that the 
 Pension Department, corresponding to our War Risk Insurance De- 
 partment, was using too much money for overhead in proportion to the 
 amount expended for pensions and benefits. He complains because 
 $5,000,000 had been devoted to the Army and $450,000 to the support 
 of the Navy, and says that these amounts were excessive. We hear 
 complaints of that character against western governments. Whether 
 or not they are well founded depends upon circumstances and condi- 
 tions, upon which the judgment of individuals differ. 
 
 To pursue this line of inquiry further is tiresome and monotonous. 
 It could be continued indefinitely. The fabric of Japanese claims that 
 she has annexed Korea for Korean's good is too flimsy. It falls apart 
 of its own weight. Japanese assumption of superiority and altruistic 
 purposes compels us to make these observations and comparisons. 
 
 She' is throwing stones from a glass house through whose walls we 
 see, in her own country, the lowest depths of poverty, squallor and vice. 
 What more of wretchedness, oppression and ignorance can we find or 
 see in any country than is described by travelers in Japan who have 
 really seen and written about the common people? 
 
 To speak of the personal misfortunes and deficiencies of others is 
 never pleasant, but the Japanese have themselves raised the issue by 
 their claimed superiority, and so it must be said, if we are to judge im- 
 partially, that because of this dense ignorance, depravity and servility 
 of the great mass of the Japanese people, the Koreans are better able 
 to govern themselves than are the Japanese. 
 
 The Koreans average better taken as a whole. The Japanese have 
 well educated and cultivated gentlemen in their upper classes, but they 
 are few in proportion to the whole mass of people. 
 
 Very few Koreans are not able to read and write their own lan- 
 guage. The percentage of illiteracy is much less than in any other 
 Oriental country. Of course, it must be admitted there is a reason for 
 this. They have been wiser and more progressive than we have in 
 some respects. It is easier to learn to read and write their language 
 than ours. 
 
 The twenty-four distinct sounds in the Korean language are repre- 
 sented by twenty-four distinct letters and they spell phonetically, so 
 that if you learn to speak and learn the twenty-four characters, you do 
 not need to learn to spell, as we do. The letters are made up of 
 straight lines and angles, a good deal on the principle of the shorthand 
 base for stenography, so that the manual effort of writing a letter or 
 Avord is much less than with us. 
 
12 
 
 The thoughtful and studious characteristics of the Korean people 
 have given rise to the charge by Japanese that they are lazy and shift- 
 less. There are lazy people in all nationals, but it has always been 
 found that the remedy, the sure cure, is incentive, and what incentive 
 have the Japanese given Koreans, even if their charge be true. 
 
 In reading books on Korean history, and there are plenty of them 
 written in the English language, we wonder how Japan can have the 
 temerity to make the claims she does, or why we even pause to enter- 
 tain them. 
 
 Korea, by superior diplomacy, courage and fighting qualities, got 
 along very nicely, and protected herself from the great Russian Bear 
 on the north, the Chinese dragon on the west and the Japanese Samuri 
 on the east, up to the time that the so-called Western Powers stepped 
 in by Treaties of Amity and Commerce and offered their "protection." 
 She maintained her independence in any event. 
 
 Having made these Treaties, the first one with the United States 
 in 1882, and others following shortly with England, France, Russia, 
 Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, she naturally fell to 
 relying upon them, and possibly she relaxed her own efforts at self 
 protection. Each Treaty as it was made provided that the high con- 
 tracting party would protect Korea against oppression. Korea was 
 trustful. She believed those treaties were solemn compacts by coun- 
 tries claiming high sense of honor in the fulfillment of obligations. 
 
 During this period of relaxation by Korea because of these Trea- 
 ties with the Western Powers, Japan comes in and literally, step by 
 step, takes possession of Korea, at each step protesting to the 
 "Powers" that she has no ulterior motive. A sample of the assur- 
 ances given by Japan to the Powers is contained in the communication 
 from K. Takahira dated August 30, 1904, addressed to Mr. Adee of 
 our State Department, in which the Japanese Minister says : 
 
 "In communicating this agreement to the Government of 
 the United States — I am further directed to say that the agree- 
 ment does not in anywise interfere with the full operation or 
 validity of Korea's existing treaties." 
 
 On September 19, 1907, the American Charge d 'Affaires at Tokyo, 
 Mr. H. Percival Dodge, sent to the State Department a summary from 
 the Japan Times of a speech delivered by Marquis Ito at a banquet 
 given to him by the House of Peers. The following is quoted from 
 Mr. Dodge's translation: 
 
 "The Marquis was emphatic in pronouncing all annexation 
 talk as absurd. The new agreement furnished a streak of hope 
 
and led by it he was striving for the permanency of the Yi 
 dynasty (Korean royal family) and the preservation of Korea." 
 
 So Korea was lulled into security, and the Powers were lulled into the 
 belief that Japan had no ulterior motive until the time came when 
 Korea had wholly relaxed her vigilance, had disbanded her army, and 
 relied wholly upon Treaty obligations and their ultimate protection; 
 then Japan coming out boldly, announced the final and complete an- 
 nexation of Korea to Japan. 
 
 It is not the purpose of this brief to cover the saine ground that 
 has already been covered by the writer in the Statement and Brief for 
 Korea that was filed before the Foreign Eelations Committee of the 
 United States Senate, so that Japan's specific acts of encroachment and 
 final seizure, Korea's protests to the Powers, the barbarities and bru- 
 talities to which Koreans have been subjected, the people's movement 
 for restored independence after the murder of the Queen and the old 
 Emperor by Japanese, and the ruthless and horrible methods used by 
 the Japanese military to suppress that movement, have not been cov- 
 ered in this brief. Those of you who have not read that brief and 
 statement, printed in the Congressional Eecord of September 19, 1919, 
 will find a reprint of it attached hereto as Appendix "A," and we hope 
 it will be examined as a part of the whole case for Korea. 
 
 EespectfuUy submitted, 
 
 Fred A. Dolph, 
 Counsellor to the Repuhlic of Korea. 
 
C!Dfln0r«sst0«aI 
 
 uttvA, 
 
 SIXTY-SIXTH OON^GHESS, FIRST SESSIOJST. 
 
 The Korean Question. 
 STATEMENT AND BRIEF 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 REPUBLIC OF KOREA, 
 
 Mr. FRED A. DOLPH, 
 
 Counsellor to the Republic of Korea- 
 
 (Piinted in tlie Conqbessional Record September 19, 1019.) 
 
 THE KOEEAN QUESTION. 
 
 Mr. SPENCER. Mr. President, I have had presented to me a 
 comprehensive statement and brief in connection with the 
 Korean situation, which, if there is no objection, I should like 
 to have printed in the Record for the information of Senators 
 and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the state- 
 ment will be received and printed in the Recokd and so referred. 
 
 The statement is as follows: 
 
 Korean Question Before the Foeetgn Relations Committee of the 
 United States Senate. 
 
 [Statement and brief for the Republic of Korea, by Mr. Fred A. Dolph, 
 counsellor to the Republic of Korea.] 
 
 " the charges against japan. 
 
 " Conforming to usual procedure, we first present for Korea 
 the ' Charges against Japan,' although in this particular matter 
 the facts embody obvious indictments in themselves. 
 
 " We preface these charges with this statement, which we now 
 emphasize and which we wish all who are to pass upon these 
 matters to keep continually in mind; that Korea for over 4,000 
 years, prior to any steps being taken by Japan to obtain sov- 
 ereignty, was an independent nation, recognized and dealt with 
 as such by all peoples and nations of the world. She had entered 
 into treaties of amity and commerce with the principal powers — 
 even Japan had made such a treaty in 1876 — and had open 
 diplomatic relations with all those powers, receiving diplomatic 
 representatives into her country and being in turn represented 
 in foreign countries by her diplomatic agents. 
 
 " Our own United States, in 1882, made such a treaty with 
 Korea, not only recognizing Korea as an independent nation, but 
 by the second paragraph of article 1 of that treaty specifically 
 and mutually agreeing vrith Korea as follows : 
 
 " ' If other powers deal unjustly or oppressively vnth either 
 Government, the other will exert their good qffices, on being 
 informed of the case, to bring about an amicable arrangement, 
 thus showing their friendly feelings.' 
 
 " This was the status of Korea untU 1894 — ^undisputed, ad- 
 mitted, and recQgnized by all powers. 
 
 " Korea charges that Japan, during the period from 1894 to 
 the present time, by successive acts of pretended friendship, 
 cajolery, intimidation, and force of arms ; using first one means 
 and then another, and sometimes all, has obtained fraudulent 
 possession of Korea and now claims complete sovereignty over 
 the nation and is seeking to extinguish the lives and property 
 rights of a race of 19,000,000 people to gratify her ambition to 
 control first the Far East and then the world. 
 
 " Japan, In 1894, using as a means to an end the threat of 
 Chinese encroachment upon Korea, obtained a treaty from 
 Korea, permitting her military occupation of Korea during the 
 period of her war with China. When that war was over, she 
 did not remove all her troops as she had agreed to do by treaty, 
 but instead began to bring pressure upon the King to secure all 
 sorts of economic rights in Korea and to dominate the policies 
 of the country. 
 
 "The Queen was vigorously protesting and using her influ- 
 ence to prevent this usurpation, and one night in October, 1895, 
 at the direct Instigation of the Japanese minister. Viscount 
 Miura, Japanese entered the palace, searched until they found 
 the terror-stricken Queen, murdered her, hacked her body into 
 pieces, wrapped the pieces In a blanket, saturated the whole with 
 139168—19909 
 
 oil, and burned the body. The grief -stricken King shortly after 
 that, in February, 1896, made his successful escape to the Rus- 
 sian Embassy. 
 
 " This was a heavy blow to the Japanese. They saw that they 
 had lost the person of the King, which to the oriental mind, 
 meant everything, and that methods must be devised to get the 
 Emperor back within their power. 
 
 " Negotiations were opened up with the Russians, resulting 
 in the agreement at Moscow and the subsequent protocol between 
 Russia and Japan, made June 9, 1896, which recognized Korea 
 as an independent nation and acknowledged her right to have 
 her own armed force and police. 
 
 " Through the joint efforts of Russia and Japan, the King 
 was induced to return to his palace and Japan agreeing to main- 
 tain only a consulate guard in Korea. Japan, for the time being, 
 was louder and louder in her protestations of love and friendship 
 for Korea and was ostentatiously instrumental in having the 
 King proclaimed Emperor in order that he might be classed 
 with the Emperor of Japan. The King was not impressed, but 
 many of his subjects were. 
 
 " Then came the threat of Russian invasion. Due advantage 
 of this was taken by Japanese propagandists, and in February, 
 1904, Korea was again Induced to permit Japanese troops to 
 occupy Korea for the purpose of repelling the Russian invasion, 
 to remain during the war between Russia and Japan. The 
 result of the Russian War was that in the treaty of Ports- 
 mouth, in 1905, Russia recognized ' the paramount rights of 
 Japan in Korea.' 
 
 " Japan proceeded to exert her claimed ' paramount rights.' 
 She remained in Korea vnth her troops in violation of her 
 treaty agreements with Korea. She sought to profit by her 
 experiences in trying to gain possession after the Chinese War, 
 to use more positive and more aggressive means. In August, 
 1904, she forced Korea to consent to the appointment of official 
 Japanese financial and diplomatic advisers, and to agree that 
 no treaties should be made vsnlth foreign powers wdthout her 
 consent, and In April, 1905, she forced Korea to turn over to 
 Japan all telephone and telegraph lines and other means of 
 communication, and a few months later forced permission for 
 Japanese vessels to navigate along the coast and in the inland 
 waters of Korea. 
 
 " It was necessary, in furtherance of Japan's ambitions that 
 Dr. AUen, the American minister to Korea, a man of the highest 
 American type, a true and fearless believer in fair play, should 
 be removed. He had been in Korea during the previous 
 attempt at usurpation after the Chinese War. He knew too 
 much. His removal was accomplished through some means, 
 and a Mr. Morgan was appointed to his place, a man wholly 
 unfamiliar with previous happenings. 
 
 "All of these things decided the Emperor upon an appeal to 
 the United States for protection under the treaty of 1882. He 
 called in his personal friend and confidant. Prof. H. B. Hul- 
 bert, an American, and intrusted him with a letter for delivery 
 to the President, containing a recital of Japanese oppression and 
 a protest to our Government. Prof. Hulbert's first duty as a 
 loyal American was to inform Mr. Morgan, the American 
 minister, of his mission, which he did, and in October, 1905, 
 left for America to carry out the Emperor's wish. 
 
 " By some means, whether fair or foul, the Japanese learned 
 of the object of Prof. Hulbert's visit to the United States, and 
 from that moment they brought to bear upon Korea all the force 
 and aggressive methods their ingenuity could devise. Finally, 
 in desperation, they resorted to brute force. They filled the 
 palace with armed soldiers, and, assembling the Korean minis- 
 ters, vrithout call or legal notice, demanded of them and of the 
 Emperor that they sign a treaty giving Japan a protectorate 
 over Korea. They refused. The prime minister was taken 
 into a side room and with drawn sword his life was threatened. 
 He preferred to die rather than stultify himself or betray 
 Korea. Awed before such evidence of courage and principle, 
 the hand of the Japanese officer was stayed, and he returned to 
 the audience chamber with great show of sheathing his sword, 
 saying to the other ministers, 'Now, will you sign?' Through 
 , the night long this method of intimidation was continued until 
 finally three of the weaker members of the ministry consented. 
 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 The Emperor never did consent or sign, and to his dying day 
 at every opportunity he protested the outrage. During the con- 
 ference the Emperor managed to send word to have the great 
 seal thrown into the lake, so that it could not be used, but 
 the Japanese managed to secure the seal before this order could 
 be carried out, and compelled the sealing of the alleged protec- 
 torate treaty of November 17, 1905. 
 
 " In the meantime Prof. Hulbert was speeding on his way to 
 Washington. It was a race, with the future of Korea the stake. 
 The so-called Treaty of Protectorate was forced on Korea al- 
 most simultaneously with his arrival in Washington, but al- 
 though he Immediately announced the arrival of the message, 
 he was prevented either by circumstances or design from ac- 
 tually depositing the document until after Japan had announced 
 that the treaty had been signed. Japan asserted that the treaty 
 was entirely satisfactory to the Government and people of 
 Korea. Her word was taken as true, and the appeal of the 
 Emperor became simply a part of the files of the State Depart- 
 ment. The next day Prof. Hulbert received a cable from the 
 Emperor stating that the protectorate was invalid and that it 
 had been obtained at the point of the sword. This was taken 
 to the State Department by Prof. Hulbert, and it, too, bec&me a 
 part of the files. 
 
 " The Emperor, finding that some further appeal was necessary 
 then set about presenting the matter to The Hague convention 
 which was to sit in 1907. Upon Prof. Hulbert's return to Korea 
 he was given formal commissions as envoy to the other powers, 
 all identical in form, each reciting the fraudulent procurement 
 of the alleged protectorate and asking for the good oflBces and 
 intervention of the powers under their treaty stipulations. 
 
 " Japan was aware of these moves and successfully blocked 
 the attempt on the part of Korea to secure a hearing at the 
 Hague. Prof. Hulbert started on his second mission, but Japan, 
 before he reached his destination, had forced the abdication of 
 the Emperor in favor of his son. Prof. Hulbert's credentials 
 being executed by the ex-Emperor, were considered nullified by 
 his abdication, and the question of Korea's oppression was not 
 considered by the Hague. 
 
 " The pitiful spectacle of the crowning of the new Emperor 
 in August, 1907, amid the suUen silence of a resentful people 
 has been repeatedly told by writers and historians. He had 
 been non compos mentis from birth. The Japanese did all that 
 was possible to prevent outside publicity. One writer says : 
 ' In this they were well advised. No one who looked upon the 
 new Emperor as he entered the hall of state, his shaking frame 
 upborne by two officials, or as he stood later, with open mouth, 
 fallen jaw, indifferent eyes, and face lacking even a flickering 
 gleam of intelligent interest, could doubt that the fewer who 
 saw this the better.' 
 
 " The first order procured by the Japanese from their puppet 
 Emperor was an order disbanding the Korean Army. The su- 
 perior officers were called to the residence of the Japanese com- 
 mander, and the order read to them. They were told to assem- 
 ble their men the next morning without arms and to dismiss them, 
 and that in the meanlime their arms would be secured in their 
 absence. At least one officer committed suicide rather than exe- 
 cute the order. His men put up a sturdy resistance against all 
 odds. From 8.30 in the morning until noon they fought desper- 
 ately, until they were overpowered by sheer force of numbers. 
 Thus the order was finally executed, and Korea was at Japan's 
 mercy. AH weapons were confiscated. Koreans were not 
 allowed and are not now allowed to have arms or weapons of any 
 kind. One butcher knife is permitted for the common use of 
 five families, and when not in use it must be hung in a designated 
 public place in plain view of Japanese poUce and gendarmes. 
 
 " With the crowning of the puppet Emperor Japan's control 
 of Korea became absolute, but the watchful care of an idiot 
 Emperor and the buying of toys and baubles became irksome to 
 the aggressive Japanese, and in 1910, they came out openly and 
 boldly with a proclamation of annexation. 
 
 " The old Emperor lived until January 24 of this year, always 
 with the hope that he might do something to restore Korea to 
 her place among nations and to gain freedom for his people. 
 His last act was to gather up his few trinkets of jewelry to 
 defray the expense of a delegation to the peace conference at 
 Paris to present Korea's claims. The Japanese learned of this, 
 and he suddenly died. Japan reported that he died of apoplexy. 
 Other stories, fully as authentic and probable, are that he was 
 murdered, that he committed suicide, and that he died of despair 
 and a broken heart. The world may never know how he died, 
 but when death did come he still had the love, sympathy, and 
 trust of his people. 
 
 " This deprivation of the inherent right to self-government 
 and our much talked of principle of self-determination is suffi- 
 cient to make u.s pause and then act. If Japanese control had 
 139168—10909 
 
 been humane and coupled with unselfish, sincere motives tho 
 principle of self-determination would even still hold true. But 
 Japanese control has been distinctly bad, inhumane, and selfish 
 Koreans have been taxed to the limit. Their lands have been 
 confiscated in favor of Japanese individuals and a Japanese 
 controlled and chartered exploitation company. Japanese has 
 been imposed upon the Koreans as the national language. 
 Koreans are not given educational privileges. Their banks have 
 been forced to consolidate with a Japanese controlled central 
 bank. Unconscionable regulations are Imposed upon Korean 
 merchants and tradesmen. Their mines and forests have been 
 confiscated. Police regulations are Intolerable. There is said 
 to be a policeman or gendarme for every five families. Koreans 
 must tell where they want to go and why, and well-to-do Koreans 
 must employ a Japanese butler, who regulates what they should 
 buy and where. All news to the outside world is censored. 
 Korean papers have been suppressed and ancient Korean histor- 
 ical records destroyed. 
 
 " The administration expense of such a government is enor- 
 mous. This is defrayed wholly by a tax against Korea, with 
 no representation whatever, of over 18 per cent of the gross in- 
 come from all sources. License fees from Infamous pursuits, 
 not before permitted in Korea, and revenues derived by Japan 
 from the opium traffic, all of which she fosters and protects in 
 Korea, are retained by Japan as her profits. 
 
 " It is not the purpose of this preliminary statement of the 
 charges against Japan, however, to go into every detail of op- 
 pression and injustice. Those details, with evidentiary facts and 
 proofs, will follow. It is sufficient if we here show violations of 
 inherent rights. The details are but evidence of those violations. 
 
 " It is obvious that all of these acts of barbarity and oppression 
 could not pass by without substantial resentment. There were 
 many uprisings and much bloodshed, held in cheek more or less 
 by the fact that the old Emperor was still alive. There were 
 factions that feared injury to the old Emperor, whom they loved 
 and respected with an adoration that is only possible with the 
 oriental's inborn respect for ancestry and tradition. His death 
 loosed all these ties, and, with a unanimity and organizing 
 ability that has astonished the world, Koreans rose up with one 
 voice for 19,000,000 people and proclaimed their restored inde- 
 pendence on March 1, 1919, adopted their constitution along 
 Unes similar to ours, elected their officers, and announced to the 
 world that there was the Republic of Korea. 
 
 " Xou already have before you the indisputable evidence of the 
 ruthless manner in which Japan handled this uprising. It is 
 all that can be expected of a militaristic government. Hun- 
 dreds met horrible and brutal death, thousands were impris- 
 oned, women were outraged, and all the brutalities and atroci- 
 ties in Belgium were repeated again and again. 
 
 " These are Korea's ' Charges against Japan.' They are, 
 necessarily, but an outline. All can not be told within the 
 limits of one volume and by one man, and we must stop in order 
 that we may within reasonable space give your committee the 
 evidential proofs of these conditions. 
 
 " Facts — Desceiptivk Data. 
 
 " The matters which we submit to the committee require a full 
 statement of the political history of Korea and the political 
 aspects of the Korean question. 
 
 " Data as to population, economic values, and resources are not 
 technically involved in the principles for decision. At the same 
 time this information is of interest because it bears upon the 
 importance of the question, and as so little is known in the 
 West about'Korea of the Far East we digress for a brief refer- 
 ence to descriptive data. 
 
 " LOCATION, AREA, AND POPULATION. 
 
 " Korea is in about the same latitude and has about the same 
 area and climate as New York and Pennsylvania combined, 
 and is more densely populated by about one-half. To be exact, 
 the latitude is north 33° to 42°, and the area is 84,173 square 
 miles, including mainland, in the form of a peninsula about 
 the shape of Florida and certain coast-lying islands. When the 
 last census was taken in 1915 there were about 1.8 per cent 
 Japanese. The total population was 16,278,389, divided between 
 Japanese 303,659, Koreans 15,957,630, and foreigners 17,100. 
 At the present time the Japanese population has probably In- 
 creased to 3 per cent of the whole, and the population is now 
 about 19,000,000. 
 
 " EBSOUKCES AND COMMERCE. 
 
 " The principal productions are from agriculture, mining, and 
 fisheries. Very little manufacturing is done, and all resources 
 and commerce are controlled by Japanese. They reported in 
 1917 that the total reached about 336,000,000 yen, or about 
 $168,000,000. Of this amount about 75,000,000 yen, or $37,500,000 
 was exported. The imports were 57,000,000 yen, or $28,500,000. 
 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 " The Japanese percentage of foreign commerce, as they re- 
 port, was about 73 per cent, the United States about 6 per cent. 
 There is an unexplained discrepancy in the Japanese reports 
 which would raise their percentage considerably. For instance, 
 while they only report exports as 75,000,000 yen, yet in another 
 part of their report they give the agricultural production as 
 300,000,000 yen, coupled with the statement that 70 per cent of 
 that production was exported, which would be 210,000,000 yen, 
 or 135,000,000 yen in excess of the entire total reported. Un- 
 doubtedly the Japanese percentage of exports and Imports Is 
 nearer 95 per cent of the whole than the 73 per cent which they 
 admit. 
 
 "AGEICULTUEB. 
 
 "According to Japanese reports of 1917, about 80 per cent of 
 the population was engaged in agricultural pursuits, and 15 per 
 cent of the whole area of the country was under cultivation. 
 This cultivated area would represent 8,080,640 acres, which they 
 report produce 300,000,000 yen, or about $150,000,000, averaging 
 $17.50 per acre. 
 
 " The principal products reported as to volume are, in the order 
 named : Rice, wheat, barley, beans, millet, potatoes, sweet po- 
 tatoes, cotton, cocoons, and cattle. Opium, ginseng, medicinal 
 herbs, and the like are not reported. 
 
 "A Japanese exploitation company, chartered as the Oriental 
 Development Co., seems to dominate the agricultural develop- 
 ment and products of the country. It owns outright, according 
 to its own reports, 73,382 cho — a cho being in the neighborhood of 
 2i acres; this means 281 square miles, or 179,840 acres. It re- 
 ceived, according to its statements, as rentals from this land a 
 total of 1,688,000 yen, an average of $4.60 per acre. 
 
 " It will be noted that, while the Japanese were only 1.8 per 
 cent of the whole population, this one exploitation company 
 alone, Japanese controlled, owns 2.2 per cent of all of the tillable 
 land. Data is not obtainable as to the amount of land owned 
 by Japanese individuals, in addition to the holdings of this one 
 Japanese corporation, but it is very evident that the Japanese 
 are absorbing and confiscating all lands, and will eventually 
 own all of the agricultural lands in Korea. 
 
 "An agricutural product that is not reported, for obvious rea- 
 sons, is opium. Thousands of acres of poppy fields are culti- 
 vated under regulations which require the output to be delivered 
 to the Japanese Government. How this branch of industry is 
 fostered and encouraged by the Japanese is explained by William 
 R. Giles in an article entitled, ' Korean poppies growing opium 
 for Japanese,' published in the BufEalo Commercial July 1, 1919. 
 
 " MINING. 
 
 " The total mineral production as reported by the Japanese for 
 1916 was 20,830,000 yen— $10,415,000 — consisting of gold and sil- 
 ver, $9,500,000 ; hard coal, $400,000 ; iron, $200,000 ; tungsten and 
 copper, $150,000 each ; and mica and miscellaneous ores, $15,000. 
 The most successful gold-mining operations in Korea have been 
 carried on by American corporations, but since the pretended 
 annexation of Korea by Japan mining laws have been enacted 
 and enforced prohibiting foreigners from securing any new con- 
 cessions, and the status of the existing American concessions is at 
 least precarious. 
 
 " Korea is very rich in natural mineral resources. The gold 
 deposits are compared with those of Colorado; the anthracite 
 coal fields to those of Pennsylvania ; the iron deposits to those 
 of Michigan ; and the copper deposits to those of Montana. A 
 recent news dispatch announcing the formation of a Japanese 
 steel corporation, capitalized at $75,00,000, to get its iron ore 
 from Korea seems to bear out these claims so far as iron ore and 
 coal is concerned. 
 
 " FII^HBBIBS. 
 
 " The Japanese report for 1916 gives the annual value of the 
 fishery product at $7,975,000. Ten thousand six hundred 
 Japanese boats earned $3,995,000, while it took, according to the 
 Japanese reports, 34,000 Korean boats to earn an equal amount. 
 This is evidently another instance of Japanese favoritism to 
 Japanese and oppression of Koreans. 
 
 •• EAILEOADS. 
 
 " There are 1,066 miles of railroads in Korea earning a gross 
 of about $4,000 per mile, divided 51 per cent freight and 49 per 
 cent passenger. The total train-mileage operated in 1916 was 
 3,964,409 miles. 
 
 " The electric lines and tramways have a mileage of 84.4 and 
 earned in 1916 572,465 yen with an operating expense of 301,726 
 yen, producing a net of 270,739 yen ; about $135,000 on an invest- 
 ment of approximately $2,000,000. 
 
 " NATIGATION. 
 
 " There are 19 lines of unsubsidized boats served with 5,491 
 vessels, not steamers, with a total tonnage of 55,000, and 154 
 
 139168—19909 
 
 steamers with a total tonniige of 40,000. There are 14 routes 
 subsidized served by 1 ocean-going steamer, 22 coastwise boats, 
 and 134 river boats. 
 
 " BANKS. 
 
 " The whole banking system Is practically centralized into 
 the Bank of Chosen, Japanese controlled, and a report from 
 that bank in 1916 shows deposits of about $17,000,000; loans, 
 about $15,000,000 ; discounts, about $13,000,000 ; and bank notes 
 issued, $47,000,000. In addition to the above, the postal savings 
 deposits were shown as around $5,000,000. The average deposit 
 being about $5. 
 
 "postal sbevicb. 
 
 " The postal service collected 89,000,000 pieces of ordinary mail 
 and distributed 97,000,000; collected 1,300,000 parcels and de- 
 livered 1,500,000. The receipts were about $23,475,000 and the 
 expenditures about $100,000 less. 
 
 " SCHOOLS. 
 
 " The 19,000,000 of Koreans are provided with but 526 schools 
 with 87,000 pupils, or 1 pupil to every 220 of the population. 
 This is less than five- tenths of 1 per cent. The 300,000 of 
 Japanese are provided with 367 schools with 37,000 pupils, or 1 
 in every 8 of the population, a ratio of 12 per cent. 
 
 " CHUECHES. 
 
 " The Christians have 3,164 churches, the Buddhist 258, and 
 the Shinto 65. There are 6,690 Christian ministers, 313 Bud- 
 dhist priests, and 103 Shinto priests. 
 
 " Facts — Japanese Admisistrativb Government. 
 " taxes. 
 
 " Koreans have no vote, no representation, and no voice in the 
 Government in any manner, shape, or form. The Japanese 
 budget for administrative expenses for Korea for 1917 was 
 62,589,309 yen ($31,290,000). The resources of the country- 
 that is, the earnings, so to speak — are reported at 336,000,000 
 yen ($168,000,000). The Korean therefore pays 18i per cent 
 of gross earnings and income to Japan for taxes, without any 
 voice or representation. 
 
 "The largest item in this 1917 budget is for public under- 
 takings, highways, harbors, etc., 20,802,634 yen ($10,400,000). 
 This Is used to improve public roads and harbors; obviously 
 to improve Korea as a military base. 
 
 " The next highest item, and one out of all proportion with 
 expenditures for like purposes In other countries, is 6,965,499 
 yen ($3,480,000) for courts and police. This is made necessary 
 by the rigid and exacting police regulations. There Is said to 
 be a policeman or gendarme for every five families. The com- 
 ings and goings of every Korean are registered. The most 
 rigid censorship of news and communication is maintained. 
 There is constant search for concealed weapons. Freedom of 
 speech is denied and is prevented by the police. Household 
 expenses are supervised. The most vigilant watch is kept over 
 every act. 
 
 " In strong contrast to these two exorbitant items is the 
 lowest item on the entire list, about $150,000 for the Korean 
 schools. It is impossible to imagine the education Koreans 
 must get at the rate of 7 cents per annum per capita. 
 
 " FOEM OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 "The Imperial edict "of Japan, dated August 29, 1910, pro- 
 vides : 
 
 " We order the establishment of the oflBce of governor general of 
 Korea. The governor general will, under our direction, exercise the com- 
 mand of the army and navy, and a general control over all administra- 
 tive functions of Korea. 
 
 " Imperial ordinance No. 354, dated October 20, 1910, follows 
 this edict, detailing the government for Korea. Article 2 pro- 
 vides that the governor general shall be appointed from the 
 Shin-nin rank, and shall be either a general or an admiral ; 
 article 3 that he shall be directly responsible to the Emperor; 
 article 4 that he shall issue, ordinances, the violation of which 
 may be punished with penal servitude or imprisonment not ex- 
 ceeding one year, detention, or a fine of not exceeding 200 yen ; 
 and by article 5 he is given authority to abrogate all orders and 
 regulations promulgated by those under him. 
 
 "Article 9 creates five departments — General affairs ; home af- 
 fairs; finance; agriculture, commerce, and industry; and the 
 department of justice. By article 2 the governor general is given 
 the following officials : Five departmental directors of the Choku- 
 nin rank, nine bureau chiefs of the Choku-nin or So-nin rank, 
 and the following officials of the So-nin rank : Two counselors, 
 
 19 secretaries, 19 assistant secretaries, 30 technical experts, 6 
 interpreters, and 367 officials of the Nan-nin rank. By article 
 
 20 two military attaches are provided for and one adjutant. 
 The attaches to be major generals or rear admirals. The adju- 
 tant to be an officer below the rank of major general and rear 
 admiral. 
 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 " Imperial edict is that all judges and clerks of courts must 
 be Japanese subjects, and in practical conduct of the courts only 
 Japanese lawyers are recognized or permitted to practice. 
 
 " No bail is allowed in criminal cases. Habeas corpus is not 
 known, and the fundamental rule that a man is presumed to be 
 innocent until he is proven guilty is actually reversed. In Korea 
 he is presumed to be guilty and must prove his innocence. 
 
 "The Korean arrested without notice, lodged in jail, given 
 no opportunity to communicate with friends, represented — if he 
 has any lawyer — ^by a Japanese who detests his client, before a 
 Japanese judge may be innocent, but his conviction is certain. 
 
 " On page 128 of Japan's report on ' Reforms and Progress in 
 Korea,' for 1916-17 is found the statement that out of 82,121 
 offenders arrested, 30 proved their innocence. It is beyond com- 
 prehension that only one man arrested out of every 2,500 was 
 found to be innocent; yet this is what the Japanese say hap- 
 pened by their own record. Of course it is ridiculous and impos- 
 sible. Thousands of Koreans, innocent of the charges made 
 against them, are wrongfully convicted. 
 
 " It would make no difference with the result whether the 
 accused was Korean or American. The percentages against him 
 would be the same. The American would have the same 2,500 
 to 1 chance to lose that the Korean had. This is illustrated by 
 the Mowry and Bell cases that were the subject of the resolution 
 recently introduced by Senator Hoke Smith. 
 
 "The Japanese reports show another practice that shocks the 
 sense of justice, appalling and unbelievable. Yet there it is in 
 black and white in Japan's own report. An exhibition of abso- 
 lute lack of moral sense. Referred by to them as a great thing 
 they have accomplished — a great efficiency they have shown. 
 They say they are able to convict a majority of the criminals 
 arrested, without a trial and that thereby they have saved the 
 courts the expense of a trial. Gi'eat efficiency ! The follow- 
 ing are the actual figures reported : 
 
 " In 1913 there were 21,483 convictions without a trial out of 
 36,953. 
 
 " In 1914 there were 32,333 convictions without a trial out of 
 48,763. 
 
 " In 1915 there were 41,236 convictions without a trial out of 
 59,436. 
 
 " In 1916 there were 56,013 convictions without a trial out of 
 81,139. 
 
 " The acquittals in those years above tabulated, respectively, 
 were 800, 93, 47, and 30. The total arrests increased each year, 
 but the acquittals decreased In number each year. How come? 
 These convictions Involved not only sentences imposing fines but 
 imprisonment at hard labor and flogging. 
 
 " No data is available as to civil procedure in the courts, but 
 It is only fair to assume that the same measure of injustice 
 was meted out. 
 
 " COMMEECB. 
 
 "As a matter of special interest to American exporters and 
 . importers, let us call attention to the fact that in the declara- 
 tion of annexation communicated to the' powers by Japan on 
 August 29, 1910, that the existing schedule of customs duties ex- 
 pires with August 29, 1920, by article 2 of that declaration, and 
 that by article 3 the ' open door ' for vessels under the flags of 
 other powers expires on the same date. 
 
 " We quote the following from the Japanese report of 1916, 
 section 75, entitled ' Mining.' 
 
 " 'As alluded to in the annual report for 1915, the mining 
 ordinance was prontulgated in December, 1915, to replace the 
 old mining regulations. The main points of change are (1) 
 the prohibition of foreigners from acquiring new mining per- 
 mits in Chosen, except in the case of a corporation organized by 
 foreigners as a Japanese legal being.' Those applications for 
 mining permits filed with the authorities by foreigners accord- 
 ing to the old regulations, and not granted by the time of the 
 enforcement of the new regulations, have all been rejected. 
 
 " The minister of agriculture, commerce, and industry is the 
 sole authority on all mining matters, subject only to the orders 
 of the governor general, as shown by the following articles of 
 the mining law : 
 
 " 'Art. 7. The minister of agriculture, commerce, and in- 
 dustry shall have the power to refuse permission for mining, in 
 case he considers such a step to be necessary in the public in- 
 terest or for any other reason. 
 
 " 'Art. 11. In case the holder of a mining right does not 
 
 carry on operations properly or when his method of work is 
 
 considered to involve danger or to be Injurious to public interests, 
 
 the minister of agriculture, commerce, and industry .shall order 
 
 139168—19909 
 
 the required Improvement or precautionary measures or the 
 suspension of operations. 
 
 " 'Art. 12. The minister of agriculture, commerce, and in- 
 dustry may revoke the permission to carry on mining operations 
 in the following cases : 
 
 " 'A. When it is discovered that the permission was obtained 
 by fraudulent means or granted by mistake. 
 
 " ' B. When work has been stopped for one year or upward 
 without adequate reason or when work has not been commenced 
 within one year from the date when permission was obtained. 
 
 " ' C. When the order mentioned in the second clause of article 
 9 or that mentioned in article 11 has not been obeyed. 
 
 " ' D. When the mining operations are considered to be in- 
 jurious to public interests. 
 
 " ' E. When the land to be used for mining operations has been 
 utilized for some other purpose. 
 
 " ' F. When the royalty or ground tax has not been paid within 
 the specified period. 
 
 " ' G. When the holder of a mining right mentioned in the third 
 clause of article 25 has not paid the contributions within the 
 specified period. 
 
 " ' H. When a fine has not been paid within the specified 
 period.' 
 
 " Can we, by any stretch of imagination, conceive of a Korean 
 obtaining a permit or of holding on to one he had obtained pre- 
 viously in the face of powers given a Japanese minister of the 
 Choku-nin rank as above quoted, especially those italicized. 
 By the same token are not American concessions already ob- 
 tained and being operated upon with hundreds of thousands of 
 dollars invested endangered by the provisions of article 12 and 
 clauses ' D ' and ' E ' of article 12 ? Their rights are in the hands 
 of this Japanese minister. He can easily find an excuse under 
 those provisions to revoke the permit or to suspend operations. 
 
 " BANKS. 
 
 " On July 26, 1909, an order was made providing for the estab- 
 lishment of a central bank ' to perform such functions as pertain 
 to the central financial medium in Korea and to deal in addi- 
 tion with the money of the Japanese treasury, if so requested 
 by the Bank of Japan.' This central bank was to take over the 
 redemption of the bank notes issued by a Japanese stock company, 
 and the principal officers were to be appointed from among the 
 Japanese. The Government of Korea was to guarantee a divi- 
 dend of 6 per cent on the shares for a period of five years. 
 
 " This was before the alleged annexation, and after the an- 
 nexation was asserted by Japan by law No. 48, promulgated 
 March, 1911, the Bank of Chosen was chartered, and it became 
 the bank for Korea. This bank was capitalized at 10,000,000 
 yen, of which Japan took 3,000,000 yen, and none but Japanese 
 subjects were permitted to take the balance. The governor 
 general of Korea appoints the directors and the governor of 
 the bank is appointed by the Japanese Government. The bank 
 may, with the sanction of the governor general, appoint agencies 
 and correspondents and estabhsh branch banks, and must ap- 
 point such as he designates on his own initiative, and the 
 governor general has the power to suspend the bank at his 
 discretion. 
 
 " The bank's report made in 1916 shows that it then had out- 
 standing bank notes to the amount of $46,240,000, which was 
 largely in excess of the deposits and the capital stock. Its con- 
 dition was such that our comptroller, if the bank was within his 
 jurisdiction, would be derelict in his duty If he did not close the 
 doors. Yet it Is in such a bank that the Korean must deposit 
 his savings, and through which he must arrange his financial 
 transactions. 
 
 " PERSONAL LIBERTY, 
 
 " We have already referred to the curtailment of personal lib- 
 erty of the Koreans by the police and the courts while in Korea. 
 Koreans outside of Korea can not return to their native land. 
 Passports will not be issued without being visfeed by Japanese 
 consuls. Japanese consuls will not vls6 the passports unless 
 the applicant will take an oath of allegiance to Japan. It is, of 
 course, Impossible for a loyal, conscientious Korean to take that 
 oath. 
 
 " Koreans can not leave Korea for any purpose, even for educa- 
 tional purposes, except that permissions are given students to go 
 to Japan. These permissions, however, are very rare, and the 
 rule is not to permit the Korean to attend school above a certain 
 prescribed elementary grade, 
 
 " Facts — Treaties. 
 
 " We have compiled all of the treaties and conventions affect- 
 ing the political status of Korea, including those between Japan 
 and Korea and between Japan and other countries, which relate 
 to Korea, beginning with 1876, and present the relevant extracts 
 from them seriatim. 
 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 " TEEUDARY 20, 1876— KOREA AND JAPAN. 
 
 "Article 1. 
 " ' Chosen being an independent State enjoys the same sov- 
 ereign rights as does Japan. 
 
 " ' In order to prove the sincerity of the friendship existing be- 
 tween the two nations, their intercourse shall henceforth be car- 
 ried on in terms of equality and courtesy, each avoiding the 
 giving of ofEense by arrogance of manifestations of suspicion. 
 "A.rticle 7. 
 
 " ' The coasts of Chosen having hitherto been left unsurveyed 
 are very dangerous for vessels approaching them, and in order 
 to prepare charts showing the positions of islands, rocks, and 
 reefs, as virell as the depth of water whereby all navigators may 
 be enabled to pass between the two countries, any Japanese 
 mariners may freely survey said coasts. 
 
 " Note. — Other covenants and provisions of treaty are the 
 usual diplomatic provisions as to exchange of envoys, treatment 
 of subject, etc. 
 
 "AUGUST 24, 1876 KOREA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " ' Makes Fusan and two other ports open to Japanese trade, 
 Including certain territory contiguous to each port. 
 
 " MAY 22, 1882 KOREA WITH THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 "Article 1. 
 
 " ' There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between the 
 President of the United States and the King of Chosen and the 
 citizens and subjects of their respective Governments. 
 
 " ' If other powers deal unjustly or oppressively with either 
 Government, the other will exert their good offices, on being in- 
 formed of the case, to bring about an amicable arrangement, thus 
 showing their friendly feelings. 
 
 "Article 11. 
 
 " 'After the conclusion of this treaty of amity and commerce 
 the high contracting powers may each appoint diplomatic repre- 
 sentatives to reside at the court of the other, and may each ap- 
 point consular representatives at the ports of the other which 
 are open to foreign commerce, at their own convenience.' 
 
 " ' This treaty was ratified by the Senate and signed by Presi- 
 dent Arthur and Secretary of State Frederick T. Frellnghuysen 
 on June 4, 1883. It had been previously signed on the first date 
 given by Commodore R. W. Shufeldt. 
 
 " NOVEMBER 26, 1883 KOREA WITH QBBAT BRITAIN. 
 
 "Article 1. 
 
 " ' 1. There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between 
 Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, Empress of India, her heirs and successors, and 
 His Majesty the King of Korea, his heirs and successors, and be- 
 tween their respective dominions and subjects, who shall enjoy 
 full security and protection for their persons and property within 
 the dominions of the other. 
 
 " ' 2. In ease of differences arising between one of the high 
 contracting parties and a third power, the other high contract- 
 ing party, if requested to do so, shall exert its good offices to 
 bring about an amicable arrangement. 
 "Article 11. 
 
 " ' 1. The high contracting parties may each appoint a diplo- 
 matic representative to reside permanently or temporarily at 
 the capital of the other, and may appoint a consul general, con- 
 suls, or vice consuls, to reside at any or all of the ports or places 
 of the other which are open to foreign commerce. 
 
 " JUNE 26, 1884 KOREA WITH ITALY. 
 
 "Article i 
 
 " ' There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between His 
 Majesty the King of Italy, his heirs and successors, and His 
 Majesty the King of Korea, his heirs and successors, and between 
 their respective dominions and subjects, who shall enjoy full 
 security and protection for their persons and property within 
 the dominions of the other. 
 
 " ' 2. In case of differences arising between one of the high 
 contracting parties and a third power, the other high contracting 
 party, if requested to do so, shall exert Its good offices to bring 
 about an amicable arrangement. 
 
 "Article 11. 
 
 " ' 1. The high contracting parties may each appoint a diplo- 
 matic representative to reside permanently or temporarily at 
 the capital of the other, and may appoint a consul general, con- 
 suls, or vice consuls to reside at any or all of the ports or places 
 of the other which are open to foreign commerce ; and whenever 
 they shall not deem it necessary to send a consul of their own 
 country to any of the aforesaid ports or places, they may in- 
 trust some consul of a friendly power with the duties of Italian 
 or Korean consul. 
 
 139168—19909 
 
 "APRIL 18, 1885 CHfNA AND JAPAN. 
 
 " ' It is hereby agreed that China shall withdraw her troops 
 now stationed in Korea, and that Japan shall withdraw hers 
 stationed therein for the protection of her legation. The specific 
 term for effecting the same shall be four months commencing 
 from the date of the signing and sealing of this convention, 
 within which term they shall respectively accomplish the with- 
 drawal of the whole number of each of their troops in order to 
 avoid effectively any complications between the respective coun- 
 tries. The Chinese troops shall embark from Masampo and the 
 Japanese from the port of Ninsen. 
 
 " ' The said respective powers mutually agree to invite the 
 King of Korea to Instruct and drill a sufficient armed force that 
 she may herself assure her public security, and to invite him 
 to engage Into his service an officer or officers from amongst 
 those of a third power, who shall be intrusted with the instruc- 
 tion of the said force. The respective powers also bind them- 
 selves each to the other, henceforth not to send any of their own 
 officers to Korea for the purpose of giving said Instruction. 
 
 " ' In case of any disturbance of a grave nature occurring in 
 Korea which necessitates the respective countries, or either 
 of them, to send troops to Korea, it is hereby understood that 
 they shall give, each to the other, previous notice in writing of 
 their Intention so to do, and that after the matter is settled 
 they shall withdraw their troops and not further station them 
 there. 
 
 " JUNE 4, 1886 KOREA WITH FRANCE. 
 
 " ' Articles 1 and 2 are identical with the same articles In the 
 treaty with Great Britain. 
 
 " JULY 14, 1894 KOREA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " ' 1. That the Independence of Korea was declared, confirmed, 
 and established, and In keeping with it the Chinese troops were 
 to be driven out of the country. 
 
 " ' 2. That while war against Ctiina was being carried on by 
 Japan, Korea was to facilitate the movements and to help in 
 the food supplies of the Japanese troops in every possible way. 
 
 " ' 3. That this treaty should only last until the conclusion of 
 peace with China. 
 
 " APRIL 1, 189B — CHINA WITH JAPAN (SHIMONOSIKI). 
 
 " ' China recognizes definitely the full and complete Inde- 
 pendence and autonomy of Korea, and in consequence the 
 payment of tribute and the performance of ceremonies and 
 formalities by Korea to China in derogation of such Independ- 
 ence and autonomy shall wholly cease for the future.' 
 
 " MAY 14, 1896 RUSSIA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " ' I. While leaving the matter to His Majesty's, the King of 
 Korea, return to the palace entirely to his own discretion and 
 judgment, the representatives of Russia and Japan will in m 
 friendly way advise His Majesty to return to that place, when 
 no doubts concerning his safety there could be entertained. 
 
 " ' II. The Japanese representative, on his part, gives the 
 aissurance that the most complete and effective measures will 
 be taken for the control of Japanese soshl. 
 
 " ' III. The representative of Russia quite agrees with the 
 representative of Japan that, at the present state of affairs in 
 Korea, it may be necessary to have Japanese guards stationed 
 at some place for the protection of the Japanese telegraph line 
 between Fusan and Seoul, and that these guards, now consist- 
 ing of three companies of soldiers, should be withdrawn as 
 soon as possible and replaced by gendarmes, who will be dis- 
 tributed as follows: Fifty men at Tai-ku, 50 men at Kaheung, 
 and 10 men each at 10 intermediate posts between Fusan and 
 Seoul. This distribution may be liable to some ' changes, but 
 the total number of the gendarme force shall never exceed 200 
 men, who will afterwards gradually be withdrawn from such 
 places where peace and order have been restored by the Korean 
 Government. 
 
 " ' IV. For the protection of the Japanese settlements of Seoul 
 and the open ports against possible attacks by the Korean 
 populace, two companies of Japanese troops may be stationed 
 at Seoul, one company at Fusan, and one at Gensan, each com- 
 pany not to exceed 200 men. These troops will be quartered 
 near the settlements, and shall be withdrawn as soon as no 
 apprehension of such attack could be entertained. 
 
 " ' For the protection of the Russian Legation and consulate, 
 the Russian Government may also keep guards not exceeding 
 the number of Japanese troops at those places, and these will be 
 withdrawn as soon as tranquillity in the interior is completely 
 restored. 
 
 " JUNE 9, 1896 RUSSIA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " ' I. For the remedy of the financial difficulties of Korea, the 
 Governments of Russia and Japan will advise the Korean 
 Government to retrench all superfluous expenditure and to 
 
6 
 
 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 establish a balance between expenses and revenues. If, In eon- 
 sequence of reforms deemed Indispensable, It may become neces- 
 sary to have recourse to foreign loans, both Governments shall, 
 by mutual concert, give their support to Korea. 
 
 " ' II. The Governments of Russia and Japan shall endeavor to 
 leave to Korea, as far as the financial and commercial situation 
 of that country will permit, the formation and maintenance of 
 a national armed force and police of such proportions as will 
 be sufficient for the preservation of internal peace without for- 
 eign support. 
 
 "APRII/ 26, 1898 RUSSIA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " ' Baron Nishi, minister for foreign affairs of His Majesty the 
 Emperor of Japan, and Baron Rosen, le Conseiller d'Etat 
 actual et Chambellan, envoy extraordinary and minister pleni- 
 potentiary of His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russlas, duly 
 authorized to that eftect, have agreed upon the following ar- 
 ticles in pursuance of article 4 of the protocol signed at Moscow 
 on June 9 (May 28), 1896, between Marshal Marquis Tamagata 
 and Prince Lobanow. secretary of state : 
 
 " 'Aeticle I. The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia 
 definitely recognize the sovereignty and entire independence of 
 Korea and mutually engage to refrain from all direct interfer- 
 ence in the Internal affairs of that country. 
 
 " 'Aht. II. Desiring to avoid every possible cause of minunder- 
 standing in the future, the Imperial Governments of Japan and 
 Russia mutually engage in case Korea should apply to Japan or 
 to Russia for advice and assistance not to take any measure in 
 the nomination of military instructors and financial advisers 
 without having previously come to a mutual agreement on the 
 subject. 
 
 " 'Akt. ITT. In view of the large development of Japanese com- 
 mercial and industrial enterprises in Korea, as well as the con- 
 siderable number of Japanese subjects resident in that country, 
 the Imperial Russian Government will not impede the develop- 
 ment of the commercial and industrial relations between Japan 
 and Korea. 
 
 " SEPTEMBEE 11, 1899 KOBEA WITH CHINA. 
 
 . " 'AuTioLE I. There shall be perpetual peace and friendship 
 between the Empire of Korea and the Empire of China and be- 
 tween their respective subjects, who shall enjoy equally in the 
 respective countries of the high contracting parties full pro- 
 tection and the advantages of favorable treatment. 
 
 " ' If other powers should deal unjustly or oppressively with 
 either Government, the other, on being informed of the case, 
 will exert their good oflSces to bring about an amicable arrange- 
 ment, thus showing their friendly feelings. 
 
 " 'Akt. II. After the conclusion of the treaty of amity and 
 commerce the high contracting parties may each appoint diplo- 
 matic representatives to reside at the court of the other and 
 may each appoint consular representatives at the ports of the 
 other which are open to foreign commerce at their own con- 
 venience. 
 
 " JANUARY 30, 1902 JAPAN WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 " 'Aeticle- I. The high contracting parties, having mutually 
 recognized the independence of China and Korea, declare them- 
 selves to be entirely uninfluenced by any aggressive tendencies 
 in either country. Having in view, however, their special inter- 
 ests, of which those of Great Britain relate principally to China, 
 whUe Japan, in addition to the degree, politically as well as 
 commercially and industrially, in Korea, the high contracting 
 parties recognize that it will be admissible for either of them to 
 take such measures as may be indispensable in order to safe- 
 guard those ihterests if threatened either by the aggressive ac- 
 tion of any other power or by disturbance arising in China or 
 Korea and necessitating the intervention of either of the high 
 contracting parties for the protection of the lives and property 
 of its subjects. 
 
 " FEBRUARY 23, 1904 KOBEA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " 'Aeticle I. For the purpose of maintaining a permanent 
 and solid friendship between Japan and Korea and firmly es- 
 tablishing peace in the- Far Bast, the Imperial Government of 
 Korea shall place full confidence in the Imperial Government of 
 Japan and adopt the advice of the latter in regard to improve- 
 ments in administration. 
 
 " ' Abt. II. The Imperial Government of Japan shall in a spirit 
 of firm friendship insure the safety, and repose of the Imperial 
 House of Korea. 
 
 " 'Abt. III. The Imperial Government of Japan definitely guar- 
 antee the independence and territorial Integrity of the Korean 
 Empire. 
 
 " 'Aet. IV. In case the welfare of the Imperial House of Korea 
 
 or the territorial integrity of Korea is endangered by aggression 
 
 of a third power or by internal disturbance, the Imperial Gov- 
 
 enment of Japan shall immediately take such necessary measures 
 
 139168—19909 
 
 as the - circumstances require, and in such cases the Imperial 
 Government of Korea shall give full facilities to promote the 
 action of the Imperial Japanese Government. 
 
 " ' The Imperial Government of Japan may, for the attain- 
 ment of the above-mentioned objects, occupy, when the circum- 
 stances require it, such places as may be necessary from 
 strategical points of view. 
 
 " 'Aet. V. The Government of the two countries shall not 
 in future, without mutual consent, conclude with a third pov^er 
 such an arrangement as may be contrary to the principles of 
 the present protocol. 
 
 "AUBOST 22, 1904 KOREA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " 'Aeticle I. The Korean Government shall engage a financial 
 adviser to the Korean Government a Japanese subject com- 
 mended by the Japanese Government, and all matters concern- 
 ing finance shall be dealt vsdth after his counsel has been taken. 
 
 " 'Aet. II. The Korean Government shall engage a diplo- 
 matic adviser to the department of foreign affairs a foreigner 
 commended by the Japanese Government, and all Important mat- 
 ters concerning foreign relations shall be dealt with after his 
 counsel has been taken. 
 
 " 'Aet. III. The Korean Government shall previously con- 
 sult the Japanese Government In concluding treaties and con- 
 ventions with foreign powers, and in dealing with other im- 
 portant diplomatic affairs, such as the grant of concessions to 
 or contracts with foreigners. 
 
 "APRIL 1, 1905 KOREA WITH AJPAN. 
 
 " 'Aeticle I. The Imperial Government of Korea shall trans- 
 fer and assign the control and administration of the post, tele- 
 graph, and telephone services in Korea (except the telephone 
 service exclusively pertaining to the department of the imperial 
 household) to the Imperial Japanese Government. 
 
 " 'Aet. II. The land, buildings, furnitures, instruments, ma- 
 chines, and all other appliances connected with the system of 
 communications already established by the Imperial Government 
 of Korea, shall, by virtue of the present agreement, be trans- 
 ferred to the control of the Imperial Japanese Government. 
 
 " 'Aet. III. When it is deemed necessary by the Japanese 
 Government to extend the communications system in Korea they 
 may appropriate land and buildings belonging to the State or to 
 private persons ; the former without compensation and the latter 
 with proper indemnification. 
 
 " 'Aet. V. AH appliances and materials which are deemed 
 necessary by the Imperial Government of Japan for the control 
 or the extension of the system of com'munlcations shall be ex- 
 empt from all duties and imposts. 
 
 " 'Aet. VII. In respect of the arrangement formerly en- 
 tered into by the Korean Government with the Governments of 
 foreign powers, concerning the post, telegraph, or telephone 
 services, the Japanese Government shall, in behalf of Korea, ex- 
 ercise the rights and perform the obligations pertaining thereto. 
 Should there arise in the future any necessity for concluding 
 any new convention between the Government of Korea and the 
 Governments of foreign powers concerning the communications 
 services, the Japanese Government shall assume the responsi- 
 bility of concluding such convention in behalf of the Korean 
 Government. 
 
 " 'Aet. VIII. The various conventions and agreements re- 
 specting the communications service hitherto existing between 
 the Governments of Japan and Korea are mutually abolished, 
 or modified by the present agreement. 
 
 " , lOOB^RUSSIA WITH JAPAN (PORTSMOUTH). 
 
 " ' The Imperial Russian Government acknowledging that 
 Japan possesses in Korea paramount political, military, and 
 economical interests, engage neither to obstruct nor interfere 
 with the measures of guidance, protection, and control which 
 the Imperial Government of Japan may find it necessary to 
 take in Korea. 
 
 " ' It is understood that Russian subjects in Korea shall be 
 treated exactly in the same manner as the subjects or citizens 
 of other foreign powers; that is to say, they shall be placed 
 on the same footing as the subjects or citizens of the favored 
 nation. 
 
 " ' It Is also agreed that in order to avoid all cause of misun- 
 derstanding the two high contracting parties shall abstain, on 
 the Russo-Korean frontier, from taking any military measure 
 which may menace the security of Russian or Korean terri- 
 tory. 
 
 " AUGUST 13, 1905 KOREA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " 'Aeticle I. Japanese vessels shall be at liberty to navigate 
 along the coasts, and in the Inland waters of Korea, for the 
 purpose of trade in accordance with the stipulations of the 
 present agreement, which, however, shall not be applicable to 
 navigation between the open ports. 
 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 " 'Art. VIII. When a Japanese vessel or the crew thereof 
 infringes the stipulations of the present agreement or of other 
 treaties, or when a member of the crew commdts any crime, the 
 Japanese consular offices shall deal with the case in accordance 
 with the provisions of the treaties and the laws of Japan. 
 
 " SBPTEMEKE 27, 1906 JAPAN WITH GHBAT BRITAIN. 
 
 " ' (a) The consolidation and maintenance of the general peace 
 In the regions of eastern Asia and of India ; 
 
 " ' (b) The preservation of the common interests of all powers 
 in China by Insuring the independence and integrity of the Chi- 
 nese Empire and the principle of equal opportunities for the 
 commerce and Industry of all nations in China ; 
 
 " ' (c) The maintenance of the territorial rights of the high 
 contracting parties in the regions of eastern Asia and of India, 
 and the defense of their special interests in the said regions. 
 
 " 'Art. III. Japan possessing paramount political, military, 
 and economic interests in Korea, Great Britain recognizes the 
 right of Japan to take such measures of guidance, control, and 
 protection in Korea as she may deem proper and necessary to 
 safeguard and advance these interests, provided always that such 
 measures are not contrary to the principle of equal opportuni- 
 ties for the commerce and Industry of all nations. 
 
 " OCTOBaE, 1906 THE KOKEAN EMPEEOR PEOTESTS JAPANESE OPPRESSION 
 
 10 UNITED STATES. 
 
 " ' The Emperor of Korea, being aware of the fact that in his 
 treaty with America there was a clause in which the American 
 Government promised to use its good offices if Korea was en- 
 dangered and announced the fact to us, determined to appeal to 
 our Government to carry out that Important clause of the 
 treaty. The following is a translation of his letter to the Wash- 
 ington Government : 
 
 " ' Ever since 1883 the United States and Korea have been in 
 friendly treaty relations. Korea has received many proofs of 
 the good vrill and the sympathy of the American Government and 
 people. The American representatives have always shown them- 
 selves to be In sympathy with the welfare and progress of 
 Korea. Many teachers have been sent from America who have 
 done much for the Uplift of our people. 
 
 " ' But we have not made the progress that we ought. This 
 is due partly to the political machinations of foreign powers 
 and partly to our mistakes. At the beginning of the Japan- 
 Russia War the Japanese Government asked us to enter Into an 
 alliance with them, granting them the use of our territory, 
 harbors, and other resources, to facilitate their naval and mili- 
 tary operations. Japan, on her part, guaranteed to preserve the 
 independence of Korea and the welfare and dignity of the royal 
 house. We complied with Japan's request, loyally lived up to 
 our obligations, and did everything that we had stipulated. By 
 so doing we put ourselves in such a position that If Russia had 
 won she could have seized Korea and annexed her to Russian 
 territory on the ground that we were active allies of Japan. 
 
 " ' It is now apparent that Japan proposes to abrogate their 
 part of this treaty and declare a protectorate over our country 
 In direct contravention of her sworn promise in the agreement 
 of 1904. There are several reasons why this should not be done. 
 
 " ' In the first place, Japan wIU stultify herself by such a direct 
 breach of faith. It will injure her prestige as a power that 
 proposes to work according to enlightened laws. 
 
 " ' In the second place, the actions of Japan In Korea during 
 the past two years give no promise that our people will be 
 handled In an enlightened manner. No adequate means have 
 been provided whereby redress could be secured for wrongs 
 perpetrated upon our people. The finances of the country have 
 been gravely mishandled by Japan. Nothing has been done to- 
 ward advancing the cause of education or justice. Every move 
 on Japan's part has been manifestly selfish. 
 
 " ' The destruction of Korea's Independence will work her a 
 great Injury, because It will intensify the contempt with which 
 the Japanese people treat the Koreans and will make their acts 
 all the more oppressive. 
 
 " ' We acknowledge that many reforms are needed In Korea. 
 We are glad to have the help of Japanese advisei-s, and we are 
 prepared loyally to carry out their suggestions. We recognize 
 the mistakes of the past. It Is not for ourselves we plead, but 
 for the Korean people. 
 
 " 'At the beginning of the war our people gladly welcomed the 
 Japanese, because this seemed to herald needed reforms and a 
 general bettering of conditions, but soon it was seen that no 
 genuine reforms were intended and the people had been de- 
 ceived. 
 
 " ' One of the gravest evils that will follow a protectorate by 
 Japan is that the Korean people will lose all incentive to Im- 
 provement. No hope will remain that they can ever regain 
 their independence. They need the spur of national feeling to 
 
 139168—19909 
 
 make them determine upon progress and to make them perse- 
 vere in it. But the extinction of nationality will bring despair, 
 and instead of working loyally and gladly in conjunction with 
 Japan, the old-time hatred will be intensified and suspicion and 
 animosity will result. 
 
 " ' It has been said that sentiment should have no place in 
 such affairs, but we believe, sir, that sentiment Is the moving 
 force in all human affairs, and that kindness, sympathy, and 
 generosity are still working between nations as between indi- 
 viduals. We beg of you to bring to bear upon this question the 
 same breadth of mind and the same calmness of judgment that 
 have characterized your course hitherto, and, having weighed 
 the matter, to render us what aid you can consistently in this 
 our time of national danger. 
 
 " ' (Private seal of the Emperor of Korea.) 
 
 " NOVEMBEE 17, 1905 KOEEA WITH JAPAN (PROTESTED AS FRAUDULENT). 
 
 " 'Aeticle 1. The Government of Japan, through the depart- 
 ment of foreign affairs at Tokyo, will hereafter have control and 
 direction of the external relations and affairs of Korea, and the 
 diplomatic and consular representatives of Japan will have 
 charge of the subjects and Interests of Korea in foreign coun- 
 tries. 
 
 " 'Aet. 2. The Government of Japan undertake to see to the 
 execution of the treaties actually existing between Korea and 
 other powers, and the Government of Korea engage not to con- 
 clude hereafter any act or engagement having an international 
 character, except through the medium of the Government of 
 Japan. 
 
 " 'Abt. 3. The Government of Japan shall be represented at 
 the court of His Majesty the Emperor of Korea by a resident 
 general, who shall reside at Seoul, primarily for the purpose of 
 taking charge of and directing matters relating to diplomatic 
 affairs. He shall have the right of private and personal audi- 
 ence of His Majesty the Emperor of Korea. The Japanese Gov- 
 ernment shall also have the right to station residents at the 
 several open ports and such other places in Korea as they may 
 deem necessary. Such residents shall, under the direction of 
 the resident general, exercise the powers and functions hitherto 
 appertaining to Japanese consuls In Korea, and shall perform 
 such duties as may be necessary in order to carry Into full 
 effect the provisions of this agreement. 
 
 " 'Abt. 4. The stipulation of all treaties and agreements exist- 
 ing between Japan and Korea not Inconsistent vrith the provi- 
 sions of this agreement shall continue in force. 
 
 " 'Aet. 5. The Government of Japan undertake to maintain the 
 welfare and dignity of the Imperial House of Korea. 
 
 " NOVEMBEB 22, 1905 JAPANESE DECLARATION OF FOREGOING TREATY, 
 
 " * The relations of propinquity have made it necessary for 
 Japan to take and exercise, for reasons closely connected with 
 her own safety and repose, a paramount interest and Influence 
 in the political and military affairs of Korea. The measures 
 hitherto taken have been purely advisory, but the experience of 
 recent years has demonstrated the Insufficiency of measures of 
 guidance alone. The unwise and Improvident action of Korea, 
 more especially in the domain of her international concerns, 
 has In the past been the most fruitful source of complications. 
 To permit the present unsatisfactory condition of things to 
 continue unrestrained and unregulated would be to Invite fresh 
 difficulties, and Japan believes that she owes It to herself and 
 to her desire for the general pacification of the extreme East 
 to take the steps necessary to put an end once and for all to 
 this dangerous situation. Accordingly, with that object in view 
 and in order at the same tiiiie to safeguard their own position 
 and to promote the well-being of the Government and people of 
 Korea, the Imperial Government have resolved to assume a 
 more intimate and direct infiuence and responsibility than 
 heretofore In the external relations of the Peninsula. The 
 Government of His Majesty the Emperor of Korea are in accord 
 with the Imperial Government as to the absolute necessity of the 
 measure, and the two Governments, in order to provide for 
 the peaceful and amicable establishment of the new order of 
 things, have concluded the accompanying compact. In bringing 
 this agreement to the notice of the powers having treaties with 
 Korea, the Imperial Government declare that in assuming charge 
 of the foreign relations of Korea and undertaking the duty 
 of watching over the execution of the existing treaties of that 
 country, they will see that those treaties are maintained and 
 respected, and they also engage not to prejudice In any way the 
 legitimate commercial and industrial interests of those powers 
 in Korea.' 
 
 " NOVEMBER 25, 1905 UNITED STATES RECEIVES KOREAN PROTEST. 
 
 " See receipt therefor from Secretary of State, which appears 
 on page 4195 of Congbessional Rkcobp of August 18, 1919. 
 
8 
 
 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 " NOVEMBER 26, 1905 KOREAN EMPE::OR CADLES PROTEST TO UNITED STATER. 
 
 " See page 4195 of Congeessionai, Uecokd of August 18, 1919, 
 containing following copy of cablegram delivered to the State 
 Department : 
 
 " I declare that the so-called treaty of protectorate recently concluded 
 between Korea and Japan was extorted at the point of the sword and 
 under duress, and therefore is null and void. I never consented to it 
 and never will. Transmit to American Government. 
 
 " The Emperor of Korea. 
 
 " june 22, ]90e emperor of korea appoints spbcial envoy to powers 
 
 to protest japanese action. 
 
 " ' By virtue of the power vested in us as the Emperor of 
 Korea, and in accordance with the right granted us in the 
 treaties between Korea and the various friendly powers, we 
 hereby constitute and appoint Homer B. Hulbert as our special 
 envoy to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, 
 France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium, and 
 China ; and we hereby delegate to him full authority to repre- 
 sent our interests and those of the Korean Empire at the seat 
 of each of these Governments. 
 
 " ' In consonance with this we have instructed him to deliver 
 to each of these Governments a document relative to the present 
 political situation in Korea and to take such steps as may lead 
 to the peaceful settlement of the difficulties which have arisen 
 between our Government and that of Japan. 
 
 " ' We hereby give him special authority to secure the adjust- 
 ment of the matter before the peace conference at The Hague. 
 
 " ' In witness whereof we here affix the imperial seal. 
 
 " ' Done in Seoul this 22d day of June, A. D. 1906, and of the 
 dynasty the five hundred and fifteenth year.' 
 
 " JUNE 22, 1906 EMPEROR EXECUTES FORMAL APPEAL TO GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 FRANCE, BELGIUM, ITALY, CHINA, GERMANY, AND AUSTRIA. 
 
 "All identical in form with following, directed to the King 
 of England : 
 
 " ' For many years the Government of Korea has been in 
 friendly treaty relations with the Government of Great Britain, 
 and has often received evidences of the good will of that power. 
 In this time of our difficulty we feel sure that all people who 
 desire to see justice done will sympathize with us. In order to 
 show that great injustice has been done us we hereby declare 
 that the so-called treaty of November 18, 1905, was fraudulent, 
 because (1) the signatures of certain members of our cabinet 
 were obtained by intimidation and under duress, (2) we never 
 authorized the cabinet to sign the document, and (3) the meet- 
 ing of the cabinet at which It was signed was Illegal, having 
 been convened neither at our call nor that of the prime minister, 
 but by the Japanese themselves. 
 
 " ' We denounce that document as invalid in law, and we 
 declare that under no circumstances will we voluntarily consent 
 to the ratification of any instrument which impairs the inde- 
 pendence of the Korean Empire. 
 
 " ' Furthermore, in view of the violent manner in which the 
 so-called treaty of last November was carried through, we deem 
 it necessary and proper to declare to you that if at any future 
 time any power shall claim to have obtained our consent to such 
 an agreement that claim will either be wholly false or will be 
 based upon acts wrung from us by force of arms or under, 
 threats of personal violence. 
 
 " ' In view of the fact that we are at the present time de jure 
 an independent power and nation, we request you to reassert 
 your right to establish a legation at Seoul, or at least to pre- 
 pare for such establishment by helping us to bring the matter 
 before The Hague tribunal, in order that our legal and just 
 claim to independence may be legally established. 
 
 " ' Any further information that may be desired will be given 
 by our fully accredited envoy, at whose hand we are trans- 
 mitting this document.' 
 
 " JULY 19, 1907 OLD EMPEROR ABDICATES. 
 
 " 'Let heaven hear. For over 40 years we have followed the 
 work of our illustrious ancestors. Many troubles have come to 
 us, and events have gone opposite to what we desired. Per- 
 haps we have not always selected the best men for the national 
 posts. Disturbances have constantly grown more acute, and all 
 efforts to remedy them have generally failed. Difficulties have 
 become pressing, and never has the distress among our people, 
 or the heavy work of governing them, been so harassing as now. 
 We are in fear and trepidation, and we feel as though walking 
 on ice covering deep water. Occupants of our throne have 
 become weary of their duty before us, and have resorted to 
 abdication. We hereby hand over to the Crown Prince the task 
 of administering the great affairs of state, and order the bureau 
 of ceremony of the imperial household to carry out the details 
 thereof.' 
 
 " The following account Is given by a writer of Current His- 
 tory of the coronation of the new Emperor, said to be a non 
 compos mentis (see The Tragedy of Korea, pp. 163 and 164) : 
 
 139168—19909 
 
 " ' The new Emperor of Korea was crowned amid the sullen 
 silence of a resentful people. Of popular enthusiasm there was 
 none. A few flags were displayed in the streets by the order 
 of the police. In olden times a coronation had been marked by 
 great festivities, lasting many weeks. Now there was gloom, 
 apathy, indifference. News was coming in hourly from the 
 Provinces of uprisings and murders. The II Chin Hoi — they 
 called themselves reformers, but the nation has labeled them 
 traitors— attempted to make a feast, but the people stayed 
 away. "This is the day not for feasting but for the begin- 
 ning of a year of mourning," men muttered one to the other. _ 
 
 " ' The Japanese authorities who controlled the coronation 
 ceremony did all they could to minimize it and to prevent 
 Independent outside publicity. In this they were well advised. 
 No one who looked upon the new Emperor as he entered the hall 
 of state, his shaking frame upborne by two officials, or as he 
 stood later, with open mouth, fallen jaw, indifferent eyes, and 
 face lacking even a flickering gleam of Intelligent interest, 
 could doubt that the fewer who saw this the better. Yet the 
 ceremony, even when robbed of much of its ancient pomp and all 
 its dignity, was unique and picturesque. 
 
 " .TULY 24, 1907 KOREA WITH JAPAN (PROTESTED). 
 
 " 'Abticle 1. The Government of Korea shall act under the 
 guidance of the resident general in respect to reforms in 
 administration. 
 
 " 'Aet. 2. The Government of Korea engage not to enact any 
 laws, ordinances or regulations, or to take any important 
 measures of administration without the previous assent of the 
 resident general. 
 
 " 'Akt. 3. The judicial affairs In Korea shall be set apart 
 from the affairs of ordinary administration. 
 
 " 'Aet. 4. The appointment and dismissal of aU high officials 
 In Korea shall be made upon the concurrence of the resident 
 general. 
 
 " 'Aet. 5. The Government of Korea shall appoint as Korean 
 officials the Japanese subjects recommended by the resident 
 general. 
 
 " 'Art. 6. The Government of Korea shall not engage any 
 foreigner without the concurrence of the resident general. 
 
 " JULY 30, 1907 NEW EMPEROR DISBANDS KOREAN ARMY. 
 
 " We quote the following from The Tragedy of Korea, page 
 159: 
 
 " 'A few days later a fresh rescript was issued In the name 
 of the new Emperor, ordering the disbanding of the Korean 
 Army. This was written in the most insulting language possible. 
 ' Our existing army, which is composed of mercenaries, is unfit 
 for the purposes of national defense,' it declared. It was to 
 make way " for the eventual formation of an efficient army." 
 To add to the insult the Korean Premier Yi was ordered to 
 write a request to the resident general begging him to employ 
 the Japanese forces to prevent disturbances when the dis- 
 bandment took place. It was though the Japanese, having their 
 heel upon the neck of the enemy, slapped his face to show their 
 contempt for him. On the morning of August 1 some of the 
 superior officers of the Korean Army were called to the resi- 
 dence of the Japanese commander, Gen. Hasegawa, and the 
 order was read to them. They were told they were to assemble 
 their men next morning, without arms, and to dismiss them, 
 after paying their gratuities, while at the same time their 
 weapons would be secured In their absence. 
 
 " AUGUST 1, 1907 JAPANESE IMPERIAL ORDINANCE NO. 319. 
 
 " ' This ordinance is practically the same in its provisions as 
 Ordinance No. 354, dated October 30, 1910, which has already 
 been referred to by us under the title of " Japanese Administra- 
 tive Government," except that the governor general was a civi! 
 officer and not a military officer. It contained an article, 
 however, permitting him to call upon the commander In chief 
 of the Imperial Army stationed In Korea whenever he deemed 
 is necessary. 
 
 " MAY 15, 1908 JAPAN WITH UNITED STATES. 
 
 " 'Article 1. The Japanese Government shall cause to be 
 enforced in Korea simultaneously with the operation of this 
 convention, laws and regulations relative to Inventions, designs, 
 trade-marks, and copyrights similar to those which now exist 
 in Japan. 
 
 " ' These laws and regulations are to be applicable to Amer- 
 ican citizens In Korea equally as to Japanese and Korean sub- 
 jects. In case the existing laws and regulations of Japan 
 referred to in the preceding paragraph shall hereafter be modi- 
 fled, those laws and regulations enforced in Korea shall also be 
 modified according to the principle of such new legislation. 
 
 " JULY 12, 1909 KOREA WITH JAPAN. 
 
 " 'Aeticle 1. Until the system of justice and prisons in Korea 
 shall have been recognized as complete, the Government of 
 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 9 
 
 Korea delegates to the Government of Japan the administra- 
 tion of justice and prisons. 
 
 " 'Aet. 4. The Korean local authorities and public function- 
 aries shaU, according to their respective functions, submit to the 
 control and direction of Japanese competent authorities in 
 Korea, and render assistance to those authorities In respect 
 of the administration of justice and prisons. 
 
 " AUGUST 2S, 1910 JAPAN WITH KOREA. 
 
 " ' Abticie 1. His Majesty the Emperor of Korea makes com- 
 plete and permanent cession to His Majesty the Emperor of 
 Japan of all rights of sovereignty over the whole of Korea. 
 
 " 'Akt. 2. His Majesty the Emperor of Japan accepts the 
 cession mentioned in the preceding article, and consents to the 
 complete annexation of Korea to the Empire of Japan. 
 
 " ' Akt. 3. His Majesty the Emperor of Japan will accord 
 to Their Majesties the Emperor and ex-Emperor and His Im- 
 perial Highness the Crown Prince of Korea and their consorts 
 and heirs such titles, dignty, and honor as are appropriate to 
 their respective ranks, and sufficient annual grants will be made 
 for the maintenance of such titles, dignity, and honor. 
 
 " 'Akt. 4. His Majesty the Emperor of Japan will also ac- 
 cord appropriate honor and treatment to the members of the 
 Imperial House of Korea and their heirs, other than those men- 
 tioned in the preceding article, and the funds necessary for the 
 maintenance of such honor and treatment will be granted. 
 
 " AUGUST 29, 1910 JAPANESE IMPEBIAL EESCEIPT ON ANNEXATION. 
 
 " ' We, attaching the highest importance to the maintenance of 
 permanent peace in the Orient and the consolidation of lasting 
 security to the Empire, and finding in Korea constant and fruit- 
 ful sources of complication, caused our Government to conclude 
 in 1905 an agreement with the Korean Government by which 
 Korea was placed under the protection of Japan in the hope that 
 all disturbing elements might thereby be removed and peace as- 
 sured forever. 
 
 " ' For the four years and over which have since elapsed, our 
 Government have exerted themselves with unwearied attention 
 to promote reforms in the administration of Korea, and their 
 efforts have. In a degree, been attended with success. But at 
 the same time the existing regime of government in that country 
 has shown itself hardly effective to preserve peace and sta- 
 bility, and in addition a spirit of suspicion and misgiving domi- 
 nates the whole peninsula. In order to maintain public order 
 and security and to advance the happiness and well-being of the 
 people, it has become manifest that fundamental changes in the 
 present system of government are inevitable. 
 
 " ' We, in concert with His Majesty the Emperor of Korea, 
 having in view this condition of affairs and being equally per- 
 suaded of the necessity of annexing the whole of Korea to the 
 Empire of Japan in response to the actual requirements of the 
 situation have now arrived at an arrangement for such perma- 
 nent annexation. 
 
 " ' His Majesty the Emperor of Korea and the members of 
 his Imperial House will, notwithstanding the annexation, be 
 accorded due and appropriate treatment. All Koreans, being 
 under our direct sway, will enjoy growing prosperity and wel- 
 fare, and with assured repose and security will come a marked 
 expansion in industry and trade. We confidently believe that 
 the new order of things now inaugurated will serve as a fresh 
 guarantee of enduring peace in the Orient. 
 
 " ' We order the establishment of the office of Governor 
 General of Korea. The Governor General will, under our direc- 
 tion, exercise the command, of the army and navy and a general 
 control over all administrative functions in Korea. We call upon 
 all of our officials and authorities to fulfill their respective duties 
 in appreciation of our will and to conduct the various branches 
 of administration in consonance with the requirements of the 
 occasion, to the end that our subjects may long enjoy the bles- 
 sings of peace and tranquility. 
 
 " AUGUST 20, 9110 JAPANESE NOTICE TO POWEBS OF ANNEXATION. 
 
 " ' By virtue of that important act which shall take effect on 
 Its promulgation on the 29th August, the Imperial Government 
 of Japan undertake the entire government and administration of 
 Korea, and they hereby declare that matter relating to foreigners 
 and foreign trade in Korea shall be conducted in accordance with 
 the following rules : 
 
 "'(1) The treaties hitherto concluded by Korea with foreign 
 powers ceasing to be operative, Japan's existing treaties will, so 
 far as practicable, be applied to Korea. 
 
 "'(2) Independently of any conventional engagements for- 
 merly existing on the subject, the Imperial Government of Japan 
 will, for a period of 10 years, levy upon goods imported into 
 Korea from foreign countries or exported from Korea to foreign 
 countries, and upon foreign vessels entering any of the open 
 139168—19909 2 
 
 ports of Korea, the same import and export duties and the same 
 tonnage dues as under the existing schedules. 
 
 " ' The same import or export duties and tonnage dues as 
 those to be levied upon the aforesaid goods and vessels will also, 
 for a period of 10 years, be applied in respect of goods imported 
 into Korea from Japan or exported from Korea to Japan and 
 Japanese vessels entering any of the open ports of Korea. 
 
 "'(3) The Imperial Government of Japan will also permit, 
 for a period of 10 years, vessels under the flags of powers having 
 treaties with Japan to engage in the coasting trade between the 
 open ports of Korea and between those ports and any open 
 ports of Japan. 
 
 " APEIL 21, 1813 JAPAN WITH POWERS. 
 
 " 'A protocol agreed to- at the conference held between the 
 director of the bureau of foreign affairs of the government 
 general of Chosen and the consular representatives of treaty 
 powers concerned relating to the abolition of the system of 
 foreign settlements in Chosen. 
 
 " 'Abticle 1. The foreign settlements in Chosen, namely, Che- 
 mulpo, Chinnampo, Kunsan, Mokpo, Masampo, and Songehin 
 shall be incorporated with tlie respective newly organized com- 
 munes of Chosen, to which they appropriately belong. 
 
 " 'Akt. 3. The common funds and property, if any, belonging 
 to the municipal councils of the said foreign settlements shall 
 be transferred to the local authorities concerned.' 
 
 " TREATIES VOID BY REASON OF FRAUD AND DURESS. 
 
 " We have just furnished the committee, chronologically, all 
 of the treaties and conventions and the formal official acts 
 necessary to an understanding of the political status of Korea. 
 No attempt has been made up to this time to introduce the 
 concurrent facts, except in so far as they are developed by the 
 formal treaties, conventions, and official protests that are mat- 
 ters of public record. 
 
 " The old Emperor's protest to the United States, already 
 quoted at page 36, gave notice of Japan's oppression and sel- 
 fish motives as evidenced by her acts, and seeks assistance and 
 the good offices of the United States to prevent the consumma- 
 tion of the Japanese threatened destruction of the independ- 
 ence of Korea. This protest was prepared and dispatched 
 before the alleged protectorate had been asserted by Japan, 
 although its delivery was prevented by wily, crafty, diplomatic 
 Japanese intrigue until after Japan had asserted its alleged 
 protectorate. 
 
 " The official record shows you that this protest was pre- 
 pared in October ; that the protectorate was asserted November 
 17, 1905 ; that Japan gave out notice on November 22, 1905, 
 to the powers that this protectorate was entirely agreeable to 
 the Korean Government and the Korean people, now knovra 
 by the world to have been a false announcement, but then taken 
 without proof to be true ; that on November 25, 1905, the Em- 
 peror's protest, prepared and dispatched in October to the United 
 States, was officially delivered to the State Department; and 
 that on November 26, 1905, the cable from the old Emperor 
 asserting that the protectorate was obtained at the point of 
 the sword and was null and void and that he had not consented 
 to it and never would was also filed with the State Department 
 of the United States. That cable has already appeared at page 
 39 of this statement and brief. 
 
 " The official record already quoted also shows your committee 
 that the old Emperor found that a further appeal was neces- 
 sary. On June 22, 1906, he commissioned a special envoy (see 
 p. — of this statement and brief) to the United States, Great 
 Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Bel- 
 gium, and China, with full authority to represent the interests 
 of the Korean Empire at the seat of each of those Governments, 
 and Instructed him to deliver to each of those Governments a 
 document relative to the political situation in Korea, and to take 
 such steps as might lead to the peaceful settlement of the diffi- 
 culties which had arisen with Japan. He was also given special 
 authority to secure an adjustment of the matter before the 
 peace conference at The Hague. 
 
 " This document which the special envoy was instructed to 
 present to the powers has already been shown in the official 
 record at page — of this statement and brief. It recited the 
 fraudulent character of the asserted protectorate by Japan, 
 declared that it was invalid, and that under no circumstances 
 would the Government of Korea voluntarily consent to the ratifi- 
 cation of any instrument which would impair the independence 
 of Korea, and that if any power claimed that the protectorate 
 had been with the consent of Korea that such claim would be 
 wholly false ; and In view of the fact that Korea was a de jure 
 independent power and nation the powers were requested to re- 
 assert their right to establish diplomatic relations with Korea, 
 and were also requested to aid Korea in bringing the matter 
 
10 
 
 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 before The Hague Tribunal In order that Korea's legal and just 
 claim might be legally established. 
 
 "This is the official record, and it might well be said that 
 it is sufficient in and of Itself, without reference to extraneous 
 proof to establish that the asserted protectorate of November 17, 
 1905, was void. The old Emperor, the acknowledged and reco;;- 
 nized ruler of the Korean nation, that has had a national inde- 
 pendent existence for over 4,000 years — to be exact ever since 
 2333 B. C. — officially denounces the announcement of the as- 
 serted protectorate as false. His denouncement and his as- 
 sertions should be taken as true. 
 
 " Japan herself up to this time had been loudest in asserting 
 to the world that Korea was an independent nation. 
 
 " For the purposes of proper explanation of the questions 
 here involved, to your committee, we have not deemed it neces- 
 sary to go back in the political history of Korea of 1876. 
 
 " By solemn treaties and conventions Japan reiterated again 
 and again the sovereign independence of Korea. In the treaty 
 with Korea dated February 26, 1876, Japan says : ' Chosen 
 (Korea) being an independent State, enjoys the same sovereign 
 rights as Japan.' In her treaty with China dated April 18, 
 1885, Japan agreed to withdraw her troops then stationed in 
 Korea and forced China to agree to the same stipulation ; and 
 forced China to a mutual agreement to invite Korea to instruct 
 and drill a sufficient armed force, to the end that she might 
 herself protect her national security and to invite Korea to 
 engage the services of officers of a third power to instruct such 
 armed force, both China and Japan binding themselves not to 
 send any of their officers to Korea for the purpose of giving 
 such instruction. 
 
 " By Japan's treaty with Korea dated July 14, 1894, Japan 
 covenanted ' That the independence of Korea was declared, con- 
 firmed, and established, and in keeping with it the Chinese 
 troops were to be driven out of the country.' 
 
 " By her treaty with China dated April 1, 1895, Japan forced 
 China to recognize definitely the full and complete independ- 
 ence of Korea. 
 
 " By her treaty with Russia dated June 9, 1896, Japan forced 
 Russia to consent to the formation and maintenance by Korea 
 of the national armed force. 
 
 " In the treaty with Korea dated February 23, 1904, Japan 
 solemnly covenants by article 3 of that treaty as follows : ' The 
 Imperial Government of Japan definitively guarantee the inde- 
 pendence and territorial integrity of the Korean Empire.' In 
 the same year that a protectorate was asserted Japan recog- 
 nized the independent national existence of Korea by making 
 two treaties with Korea by which she and her subjects acquired 
 economic rights in Korea. On April 1, 1905, she covenanted 
 with Korea for the purpose of acquiring the post, telegraph, 
 and telephone lines in Korea, and on August 13, 1905, only a 
 brief period of three months before asserting the alleged pro- 
 tectorate, she entered Into a treaty with Korea, therehy recog- 
 nizing the national independent existence of Korea and recog- 
 nizing the right and jurisdiction of Korea to control navigation 
 within her territorial limits, to permit Japanese vessels to navi- 
 gate along the coast and in Inland waters of Korea for the 
 purpose of trade. 
 
 " So It appears that within a few months of the asserted pro- 
 tectorate that Japan recognized the national independent ex- 
 istence of Korea and had proclaimed that national independent 
 existence to the world by her solemn treaties and covenants, and 
 in more than one instance had forced other powers to do the 
 same. 
 
 " Under such circumstances, why should not the protestation 
 and written assertion of the recognized ruler of Korea, that the 
 asserted protetcorate was invalid, be accepted ? 
 
 " However, in a presentation of such a momentous question, we 
 might be considered derelict if we did not also present the extra- 
 neous proof to show that the Japanese announcement of Novem- 
 ber 22, 1905, to the powers, of the asserted protectorate of No- 
 vember 17, 1905, was false ; that by crafty and malicious diplo- 
 matic intrigue she prevented delivery of the Korean protest to 
 the United States until after her announcement of November 22, 
 1905 ; that by the same crafty and fraudulent diplomatic methods 
 of intrigue, and by force, she procured the abdication of the old 
 Emperor on July 19, 1907, in order to annul the previously exe- 
 cuted authority to the Korean envoy and the protestation to the 
 powers, thus making it impossible for the powers or The Hague 
 convention to officially receive the envoy and to officially consider 
 the protest ; that Japan fraudulently and by political and diplo- 
 matic intrigue procured the crowning of a new Emperor — an 
 unfortunate known to be non compos mentis from birth — and 
 procured the disbanding of the Korean army; and how Japan 
 dominated and influenced this poor unfortunate new Emperor by 
 alternate threats and promises of new uniforms and toys, until 
 139168—19909 
 
 she finally openly asserted the annexation of Korea and an- 
 nounced the abdication of this puppet Emperor on August 29,- 
 1910. 
 
 " If we were to consider what must have been the attitude and 
 temper of the Korean Government and of the Korean people at 
 the time that Japan asserted the protectorate of 1905, we realize 
 how absurd and impossible it would be for the Korean Govern- 
 ment and the Korean people to voluntarily consent to this pro- 
 tectorate. 
 
 " The Koreans could not but remember, and we can not but 
 remember, that in 1894 Japan procured permission to occupy 
 Korea with her troops during her v^ar with China, under the ex- 
 pressed promise to withdraw the troops at the conclusion of the 
 war, and how at the conclusion of the war with China, Japan vio- 
 lated her treaty in this respect and entered upon a camapign of 
 threats to secure economic privileges and to dominate Korea. 
 
 " How could Koreans forget, or we forget, that awful night in 
 October, 1895, when, by Japanese instigation, the Queen, who, 
 with all the power and Influence with which she was endowed, 
 was seeking to protect her beloved people from Japanese aggres- 
 sion, was ruthlessly murdered in cold blood and her body burned, 
 and how the grief-stricken Emperor was finally obliged to flee 
 from his own palace and from Japanese domination and threats 
 and to take refuge in the Russian Embassy, a fugitive in his own 
 country and among his own people. 
 
 " How can Koreans forget or we forget how intensively the 
 Japanese then brought into play all their abilities of diplomatic 
 craft and intrigue, and finally succeeded in getting the Emperor 
 (then holding the title of King) to return to his palace, upon 
 joint assurances of both Russia and Japan, and how for the 
 time being Japan protested a love and friendship for Korea — 
 that Korea, to her sorrow, and the world, to its horror, has since 
 learned to be insincere. 
 
 " Koreans must have had in mind and we must bear In mind 
 how Korea in February, 1904, again gave permission to Japan 
 to occupy Korea with troops during the war with Russia, and 
 how, flushed with her success in the Russian War, Japan, throw- 
 ing off the guise of friendship, again violated her treaty and 
 refused to withdraw her troops, virtually imprisoning the Em- 
 peror and boldly set about to confiscate the economic resources 
 of the country and to dominate its governmental policies. 
 
 " It was fresh in the Korean mind that Japan at the end of a 
 great war had defeated Russia and that in lieu of indemnity 
 she had forced Russia to acknowledge her ' paramount rights ' 
 in Korea. 
 
 " It is impossible to conceive that Korea should forget all 
 of these things and that it should voluntarily and of its own 
 free will consent to, much less welcome, a protectorate from a 
 country by whom she had been so misused. 
 
 "As we go back over the situation as it must have been in 
 November, 1905, it becomes clearer and clearer that the crafty 
 Japanese announcement of November 22, 1905, that Korea had 
 consented to and welcomed the asserted protectorate, was ab- 
 surdly and ridiculously false,, and we became more and more 
 convinced of the truth and sincerity of the old Emperor's pro- 
 testations that the protectorate had not been consented to and 
 would never be consented to by the Korean Government and 
 Korean people. 
 
 " It seems so needless to present outside evidence ; the most 
 that can be said is that it is cumulative. We hesitate to burden 
 .vour committee with a volume of outside proof on this matter, 
 and feel that we must swerve from our original purpose to pre- 
 sent all of the evidence and content ourselves with only a few 
 quotations from authors of concurrent history. 
 
 " You already have before you the statement of Prof. Hulbert, 
 which appears on pages 4194 to 4196 of the Conqeessional 
 Recobd, in issue of August 18, 1919, to which you can refer. 
 
 " We have already quoted from the Tragedy of Korea, a 
 contemporaneous history of current events by Mr. F. A. Mac- 
 Kenzie, on pages 41 and 42 of this statement and brief, covering 
 the crowning of the new Emperor and the disbanding of the 
 Korean Army. Mr. MacKenzie is a writer of note and a man 
 of unimpeachable integrity, thoroughly familiar with the Korean 
 question. The first edition of his work is said to be exhausted 
 and a second edition is in process of publication, but the work 
 can be obtained from any library. 
 
 "Prof. Hulbert, to whom we have had occasion to refer so 
 many times in this statement and brief, is also the author of a 
 work on Korean history entitled ' The Passing of Korea.' His 
 thorough and intimate knowledge of the subject can not be 
 questioned. 
 
 " There are many other authors and historians of note who 
 have written of and treated the Korean question. The limited 
 space to which we must confine ourselves prevents reference to 
 or quotations from such writers. Permit us, however, to quote 
 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 11 
 
 the following from pages 131 to 137 of Mr. MacKenzie's work, 
 ' The Tragedy of Korea,' as showing what actually transpired in 
 Korea during that month of November, 1905: 
 
 " ' Early in November the Marquis Ito arrived in Seoul as 
 special envoy from the Emperor of Japan, and he brought with 
 him a letter from the Mikado saying that he hoped the Korean 
 Emperor would follow the directions of the marquis and come to 
 an agreement with him, as it was essential for the maintenance 
 of peace in the Par East that he should do so. On November 15 
 Marquis Ito was received in formal audience and there presented 
 a series of demands drawn up in treaty form. These were, in 
 the main, that the foreign relations of Korea should now be 
 placed entirely in the hands of Japan, the Korean diplomatic 
 service be brought to an end, and the ministers recalled from 
 foreign courts. The Japanese minister to Korea was to become 
 supreme administrator to the country under the Emperor and 
 the Japanese consuls in the different districts were to be made 
 residents, with the powers of supreme local governors. In other 
 words, Korea was entirely to surrender her independence as a 
 State and was to hand over control of her internal administra- 
 tion to the Japanese. The Emperor met the request with a blank 
 refusal. The conversation between the two, as reported at the 
 time, was as follows: 
 
 " ' The Emperor said : 
 
 " ' "Although I have seen in the newspapers various rumors 
 that Japan proposed to assume a protectorate over Korea, I 
 did not believe them, as I placed faith in Japan's adherence to 
 the promise to maintain the independence of Korea which was 
 made by the Emperor of Japan at the beginning of the war and 
 embodied in a treaty between Korea and Japan. When I heard 
 you were coming to my country I was glad, as I believed your 
 mission was to increase the friendship between our countries, 
 and your demands have therefore taken me entirely by surprise." 
 
 " ' To which Marquis Ito rejoined : 
 
 " ' " These demands are not my own ; I am only acting in ac- 
 cordance with a mandate from my Government, and if Your 
 Majesty will agree to the demands wliich I have presented. It 
 will be to the benefit of both nations, and peace in the East will 
 be assured forever. Please, therefore, consent quickly." 
 
 " ' The Emperor replied : 
 
 " ' " From time immemorial it hasbeen the custom of the rulers 
 of Korea, when confronted with questions so momentous as this, 
 to come to no decision until all the ministers, high and low, who 
 hold or have held office, have been consulted and the opinion of 
 the scholars and the common people have been obtained, so that 
 I can not now settle this matter myself." 
 
 " ' Said Marquis Ito again : 
 
 " ' " Protests from the people can easily be disposed of, and 
 for the sake of the friendship between the two countries Your 
 Majesty should come to a decision at once." 
 
 " ' To this the Emperor replied : 
 
 " ' "Assent to your proposals would mean the ruin of my coun- 
 try, and I will therefore sooner die than agree to them." 
 
 " ' The conference lasted nearly five hours, and then the 
 marquis had to leave, having accomplished nothing. He at 
 once tackled the members of the cabinet, individually and col- 
 lectively. They were all summoned to the Japanese legation 
 on the following day, and a furious debate began, starting at 
 3 o'clock in the afternoon and lasting till late at night. The 
 ministers had sworn to one another beforehand that they would 
 not yield. In spite of threats, cajoleries, and proffered bribes, 
 they remained steadfast. The arguments used by Marquis Ito 
 and Mr. Hayashi, apart from personal ones, were twofold. The 
 first was that it was essential for the peace of the Far East 
 that Japan and Korea should be united. The second appealed 
 to racial ambition. The Japanese painted to the Koreans a 
 picture of a great united East, with the Mongol nations all 
 standing firm and as one against the white man, who would 
 reduce them to submission if he could. The Japanese were 
 determined to give the cabinet no time to regather its strength. 
 On the 17th of November another conference began at 2 in the 
 afternoon at the legation, but equally without result. Mr. 
 Hayashi then advised the ministers to go to the palace and open 
 a cabinet meeting in the presence of the Emperor. This was 
 done, the Japanese joining in. 
 
 " 'All this time the Japanese Army had been making a great 
 display of military force around the palace. All the Japanese 
 troops in the district had been for days parading the streets 
 and open places fronting the imperial residence. The field 
 guns were out and the men were fully armed. They marched, 
 countermarched, stormed, made feint attacks, occupied the 
 gates, put their guns in position, and did everything short of 
 actual violence that they could to demonstrate to the Koreans 
 that they were able to enforce their demands. To the cabinet 
 ministers themselves and to the Emperor all this display had 
 1QQ1RS — ingog 
 
 a sinister and terrible meaning. They could not forget the 
 night in 1895 when the Japanese soldiers had paraded around 
 another palace and when their picked bullies had forced their 
 way Inside and murdered the queen. Japan had done thlsi 
 before ; why should she not do it again ? Not one of those now 
 resisting the will of Dai Nippon but saw the sword in front of 
 his eyes and heard in imagination a hundred times during the 
 day the rattle of the Japanese bullets. 
 
 " ' That evening Japanese soldiers, with fixed bayonets, en- 
 tered the courtyard of the palace and stood near the apartment 
 of the Emperor. Marquis Ito now arrived, accompanied by 
 Gen. Hasegawa, commander of the Japanese army in Korea, 
 and a fresh attack was started on the cabinet ministers. The 
 marquis demanded an audience of the Emperor. The Emperor 
 refused to grant it, saying that his throat was very bad and he 
 was in great pain. The marquis then made his way into the 
 Emperor's presence and personally requested an audience. 
 The Emperor still refused. " Please go away and discuss the 
 matter with the cabinet ministers," he said. 
 
 " ' Thereupon Marquis Ito went outside to the ministers. 
 " Your Emperor has commanded you to confer with me and 
 settle this matter," he declared. A fresh conference was 
 opened. The presence of the soldiers, the gleaming of the 
 bayonets outside, the harsh words of command that could be 
 heard through the windows of the palace buildings were not 
 without their efCect. The ministers had fought for days, and they 
 had fought alone. No single foreign representative had offered 
 them help or counsel. They saw submission or destruction be- 
 fore them. " What is the use of our resisting? " said one. "The 
 Japanese always get their way in the end." Signs of yielding 
 began to appear. The acting prime minister, Han Kew Sul, 
 jumped to his feet and said he would go and tell the Emperor 
 of the talk of traitors. Han Kew Sul was allowed to leave the 
 room and then was gripped by the Japanese secretary of the 
 legation, thrown into a side room, and threatened with death. 
 Even Marquis Ito went out to liim to persuade him. " Would 
 you not yield," the marquis said, " if your Emperor commanded 
 you? " " No," said Han Kew Sul, " not even then ! " 
 
 " ' This was enough. The marquis at once went to the Em- 
 peror. " Han Kew Sul is a traitor," he said. " He defies you 
 and declares that he will not obey your commands." 
 
 " ' Meanwhile the remaining ministers waited in the cabinet 
 chamber. Where was their leader, the man who had urged 
 them all to resist to death? Minute after minute passed, and 
 still he did not return. Then a whisper went round that the 
 Japanese had killed him. The harsh voices of the Japanese 
 grew still more strident. Courtesy and restraint were thrown 
 off. "Agree with us and be rich, or oppose us and perish." 
 Pak Che Sun, the foreign minister, one of the best and most 
 capable of Korean statesmen, was the last to yield. But even 
 he finally gave way. In the early hours of the morning com- 
 mands were issued that the seal of state should be brought 
 from the foreign minister's apartment and a treaty should be 
 signed. Here another difficulty arose. The custodian of the 
 seal had received orders in advance that, even if his master 
 cominanded, the seal was not to be surrendered for any such 
 purpose. When telephonic orders were sent to him he refused 
 to bring the seal along, and special messengers had to be dis- 
 patched to take it from him by force. The Emperor himself 
 asserts to this day that he did not consent.' 
 
 " NOTICH TO POWERS OW FEAUD IN PROCnEING TREATIES. 
 
 " If we were to discuss this subject independently, we would 
 repeat much that has already been said. In the treatment of 
 other phases of this matter we have necessarily referred to 
 Korea's official and unofficial protests to the powers and to her 
 appeals for protection under the clauses of her treaties with 
 those powers of amity and commerce. Korea's case has never 
 been decided by any of the powers. She has never been per- 
 mitted to even present her case. Her appeals and her protests 
 are nevertheless notice of her rights. She did all that she 
 could, and those notices and those appeals amount to an inter- 
 national lis pendens. 
 
 " However the nations, particularly the United States, may 
 have dealt with Japan with respect to Korea, since the asserted 
 protectorate of Japan over Korea, those dealings have been with 
 full notice of Korea's claims and subject to her rights. 
 
 " The fact that the United States, or other nations, may or 
 may not have erroneously accepted Japan's false announcement 
 of November 22, 1905, that the alleged protectorate was with 
 the consent of Korea is not material. To persist in a wrong 
 course, to persist in assisting Japan in a wrong course after 
 we know it is wrong, is to become particeps crimlnis to the 
 original wrong and injury. We might be excused, or we might 
 be forgiven, for our error in originally accepting Japan's false 
 statement vnthout proof, but we can not be excused and we 
 
12 
 
 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 can not be forgiven if we persist in that erroneous action after 
 learning the falsity of Japan. 
 
 " Must the Government of the United States sit idly by and 
 see this monstrous -tiling ruthlessly and cold-bloodedly executed 
 without remonstrance or protest, when our mere remonstrance 
 or mere protest, emphatically voiced, would shame and awe 
 Japan, by its very moral force and strength, into undoing the 
 international crime against Korea that it has committed and 
 would save a nation of 19,000,000 souls from bondage and 
 extinction? 
 
 " Korea, it may seem to us, in her simplicity, does not believe 
 in the use of armed force. She has delighted to call her coun- 
 try the land of the " Morning Calm," significant of that morning 
 hour of refreshed being, when all is peace and contentment, and 
 significant of the passive, contemplative, and kindly spirit of 
 her people. She believes that moral strength and justice are 
 superior to brute force and materialism. Who are we, that we 
 should say that she is not right? 
 
 " Korea does not ask for arms and ammunition with which to 
 assert her rights. She does not ask that we or that any of the 
 powers intervene to protect her by force. She asks only that 
 we give her the moral strength that comes from the assertion 
 of a righteous sentiment by a nation that is known to be just, 
 impartial, and unselfish. We can do no less. 
 
 Facts — Thh Independent Movement. 
 " In spite of the passive, contemplative, nonresisting, and 
 kindly characteristics of the whole Korean people, it was im- 
 possible that this aggression and domination by Japanese should 
 not be resented. There were many uprisings at points where 
 Japanese brutality, arrogance, and aggression were particularly 
 active. These were always met by ruthless methods of oppres- 
 sion, and even up to the time of the death of the old Emperor, 
 on January 24 of this year, there had been much bloodshed by 
 patriotic Koreans. 
 
 " Instilled \vith 4,000 years of inherited love for ancestry and 
 tradition, no organized effort was made to restore independence, 
 many factions fearing that this would result in injury or torture 
 to their old beloved Emperor. 
 
 " It would seem that they were patiently and passively waiting 
 for the time to come when the old Emperor should be beyond 
 the avenging hand of Japan. 
 
 " Subsequent events prove this to be literally true. Immedi- 
 ately upon his death all restraint was removed, and the Koreans, 
 with a unanimity, determined purpose, and organizing ability 
 that ustonished the world, rose up as one voice for their 19,- 
 000,000 people and proclaimed their restored independence. 
 
 " The sincerity, determination, and ability with which this 
 movement was conducted is all the more appreciated when the 
 circumstances are known. The Koreans had no newspapers, 
 their printing presses had been confiscated ; they were under the 
 strictest form of police surveillance and censorship ; every Korean 
 was registered by the police, and he was obliged to give a strict 
 account of his whereabouts at all times, and no gatherings of 
 Koreans of over five in number were permitted by the police 
 without their sanction or presence. Yet, in spite of all this, 
 communications and notices were in some way mimeographed 
 or duplicated, and the people did meet and did confer. This 
 was all carefully done with the utmost secrecy, not even their 
 friends the missionaries having an inkling of what was transpir- 
 ing. They organized in every precinct and in every district of 
 Korea, determined upon the exact wording of their declaration 
 of independence, and somehow at some .place they procured and 
 distributed copies of the document to every precinct In Korea. 
 In the meantime they selected 33 representative men to sign 
 the document, and it is evidence of their ideas of justice and 
 fair play that they selected as such representative men 15 
 Christians, 15 members of the Heavenly Way Society, and 3 
 Buddhists. With a thoroughness and intelligent attention to 
 detail that would do credit to any of our own best constitu- 
 tional lawyers, they arranged for the day and hour when the 
 declaration of restored independence should be publicly read in 
 every city and precinct in Korea. March 1 was fixed as the day 
 and 2 o'clock as the hour upon which the declaration was to be 
 read, and it was arranged that simultaneously with the reading 
 of the declaration copies should be delivered to Korean boys 
 disguised as Japanese newsboys to be distributed to all the 
 people. Promptly on the day and hour the 33 representatives 
 elected to sign the declaration formally executed it, and it was 
 read, and the boys distributed it as arranged. Many of the 
 readers were shot down, but there was always some one in the 
 crowd at another point who took up the reading where it was 
 stopped. Many of these patriotic boys met their death, but 
 there was always another boy to carry out the program. But 
 all of this is better told by eyewitnesses. Mr. V. M. McClatchy, 
 editor of the Sacremento Bee, was In Seoul, Korea, at the time 
 
 139168—19909 
 
 of this demonstration, and he is one of the many messengers 
 who brought back to America a copy of that declaration. Upon 
 his return he published in his paper a graphic account of the 
 demonstration under the title ' Greatest example In world 
 history of organized passive resistance for an ideal.' 
 
 " ' Suddenly, on the Saturday preceding the funeral, March 1, 
 at 2 p. m., without warning or hint to the foreign population and 
 without suspicion evidently on the part of the Japanese ruler, 
 there was inaugurated in every large city of Korea on behalf 
 of its 20,000,000 subject people a peaceful demonstration and 
 demand for national independence. This demonstration con- 
 tinued in various forms throughout the Korean Peninsula up to 
 the date of our departure from Yokohama March 17. Since 
 that time the veil which conceals or distorts happenings in the 
 Far East has dropped for us as it has for all westerners. 
 
 " ' In Seoul the demonstration consisted of a reading of the 
 proclamation in a public park ; of the rushing of many thousands 
 of white-robed Koreans down the wide main street, shouting 
 " Mansei," the Korean equivalent to the Japanese " Banzai " ; 
 exhortations to the students of the various schools to join in the 
 demonstration and to maintain a peaceful agitation until they 
 secured national freedom and an attempt to enter the palace 
 gates and present a petition to young Prince Yi, etc. 
 
 " ' The police and gendarmes could not stop the crowd at 
 first, but soldiers were called out, and clubbed muskets and 
 swords were used effectively, over 150 prisoners being taken to 
 jail that afternoon, some of them rather severely injured. Some- 
 what similar demonstrations were made on Monday and on 
 Wednesday ; but they did not last long, the Japanese being pre- 
 pared, and several hundred demonstrators being made prisoners, 
 among them some girl students. The demonstrations in other 
 cities took on a similar character. 
 
 " ' The vernacular press of Japan during the first week of the 
 demonstration was filled with accounts from several special cor- 
 respondents, declaring that in Seoul and elsewhere throughout 
 the peninsula the Koreans had attacked, injured, and even killed 
 gendarmes, police, and soldiers and injured property. Up to the 
 morning of March 6, when we left Seoul, I am confident that no 
 such thing occurred in that city, and I have reasons to believe it 
 did not occur elsewhere. The most conclusive evidence on this 
 point is the interview published in the Japan Advertiser by the 
 Japanese minister of communication, Noda, who, with other 
 high officials of the Government, went to Seoul to attend the 
 funeral of the former Emperor Yi. Noda did not leave Seoul 
 until March 5, and his interview, published on his return to 
 Tokyo, declared that the Koreans had not committed acts of vio- 
 lence or injured property either in Seoul or anywhere else in 
 Korea. 
 
 " ' On the morning on which we left Seoul, five days after the 
 demonstration commenced, there appeared on posts and walls a 
 second proclamation from the Korean leaders, though unsigned, 
 in which the people were congratulated on the manner in which 
 they had testified to Japan and to the world their desire to be 
 free and on the self-control and forbearance with which they had 
 endured injury and arrest. They were reminded that as Koreans 
 they must stand up for the sacred cause to the last man, and 
 they were cautioned again to do no violence and no injury to 
 property. " He who does this," the proclamation said, " is an 
 enemy to his country and will most seriously injure the cause." 
 
 " ' Meanwhile, the Koreans had carried on the policy of passive 
 resistance by closing up all the schools, the Korean children hav- 
 ing ceased to attend, and by ceasing work in the various public 
 utility and manufacturing enterprises.' 
 
 " Mr. J. A. Armstrong, secretary of the board of foreign mis- 
 sions of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, was in Seoul as 
 late as March 17. His description follows : 
 
 " ' During those two days in Seoul I saw, read, and learned 
 much about the Korean revolution for independence. (I spent 
 three months in Korea in the latter half of 1918 and was there- 
 fore somewhat informed as to the conditions which made the 
 people dissatisfied with Japanese rule. ) The " adequate rea- 
 son " was that the missionaries desired that, as a missionary 
 secretary was about to leave for North America, I should know 
 the facts about the movement. Press dispatches are both 
 meager and inaccurate, a fact which should be kept in mind 
 when reading what may come over the cables to our papers It 
 is unwise for anyone in Korea to send any facts through' the 
 mails because of censorship. Only by travelers can the truth 
 reach the outside world, even Japan itself. 
 
 " ' What I learned roused my indignation and sympathy In- 
 dignation at the cruel treatment given the Koreans by Japanese 
 police and soldiers ; sympathy for an oppressed and defenseless 
 people crying out for justice. I hope to prepare a fuller state- 
 ment later, and shall therefore set down here only a few points 
 which should be noted. 
 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 
 
 13 
 
 " ' 1. Missionaries and other foreigners in Korea were as Ig- 
 norant about the plans of the Koreans as the Japanese them- 
 selves. The civil authorities acknowledge this, but the military 
 and the Japanese press In Japan charge the missionaries with 
 instigating the uprising. 
 
 " ' 2. It did not originate in mission schools, as alleged, 
 though they are in it, as Government schools are. 
 
 " ' 3. IToreigners marvel at the ability and thoroughness with 
 which the Koreans organized and are carrying on the campaign. 
 Even the oldest British and American citizens had no idea that 
 the Koreans were capable of planning and conducting such a 
 widespread rebellion. 
 
 " ' 4. Their methods are those of passive resistance, that no 
 violence be used nor resistance offered to arrest. They, even 
 schoolgirls, go to prison singing, cheering, and shouting 
 " Mansei " (Japanese " Banzai," lit., ten thousand times ten 
 thousand years.) This cry, or, as it is sometimes expressed, 
 " Tongnlp Mansei" (independence forever), has united the 
 whole nation ' 
 
 "We might pursue this line of statement indefinitely, but It 
 would be mere repetition and cumulative. 
 
 " What we have quoted, however, emphasizes what we have 
 had occasion to say before, that the Koreans are using no 
 force ; they believe implicitly in the strength of moral force as 
 against brute force, and is it not possible that they are more 
 enlightened than many of their brothers of the white race? 
 
 " Following the passing of this declaration for restored inde- 
 pendence, and with the same thoroughness and attention to 
 detail, they elected delegates to a constitutional convention. 
 These delegates, in order that they might not be disturbed, met 
 secretly until they had as between themselves agreed upon a 
 constitution for the government of Korea ; then determined 
 upon April 23, 1919, as the date and upon Seoul, Korea, as the 
 place for the formal public meeting of their convention and 
 election of ofBcers. With no printing presses, the type for their 
 constitution was hand carved on blocks of wood and copies 
 were taken from these wooden blocks. When the time came for 
 the holding of the convention it was held at the time and place 
 appointed and the constitution adopted, and Dr. Syngman Rhee 
 was elected president, and other executive officers were duly 
 elected at the same time. 
 
 " Their declaration of independence and their constitution is 
 as near our ovra as the circumstances and conditions in Korea 
 will permit. They declare for and provide for free speech, free- 
 dom of religion, and give every Korean — man and woman 
 alike — the right to vote. 
 
 " This similarity is not to be wondered at. In view of the fact 
 that the majority of the members of the Korean National Council 
 and the representative officers of the new Korean republic have 
 been graduated from American colleges and universities. They 
 have studied, with oriental thoroughness, all of the different 
 forms of government, and it is no small compliment that they 
 should pattern after the United States. 
 
 " In strong contrast to the ideal treatment of the situation 
 by the Koreans, is the positively low, brutal, atrocious treat- 
 ment of the situation by the Japanese, which we shall now 
 
 comment on.- 
 
 Facts — Ateocities. 
 
 " This subhead has reference to the proof of Inhuman, 
 bestial, wanton, and willful brutality of the Japanese toward 
 the Koreans. 
 
 " The evidence of these atrocities Is already before the Sen- 
 ate and will be found in the Congkessional Record, July 15, 
 1919, pages 2735 and 2736 ; July 17, 1919, pages 2845 to 2965 ; 
 July 18, 1919, page 2956; and August 18, 1919, pages 4194 to 
 4196. 
 
 " Thousands have been murdered ; more thousands have been 
 wounded and maimed, and still many more thousands have 
 been imprisoned and tortured ; churches have been burned ; 
 whole villages have been reduced to ruins; women have been 
 outraged and beaten, and even the hands of little children 
 have been cut off, because those tiny hands held aloof the flag 
 of their country. 
 
 "The record before you contains the direct, first hand, eye- 
 witness proof of 361 of those murders; time, place, and cir- 
 cumstance. The same record gives you the same detail with 
 reference to 860 wounded and maimed men. You find there 
 direct proof of the burning of churches and destruction of vil- 
 lages. Eyewitnesses and victims themselves tejl you how 
 young women and girls were stripped naked and were beaten 
 and flogged, and how their trembling bodies, perspiring from 
 terror and pain, were dashed with pails of cold water; how 
 
 139168—19909 
 
 their fingers were tied together and then pulled out of joint, 
 and how they were then packed into cells, men and women to- 
 gether, with no ventilation or sanitation. The record tells you 
 how the hospitals were forbidden to care for the wounded, and 
 what indignities and punishments were meted out to Americans 
 and others who dared to assist the wounded, or care for the 
 dead. 
 
 " This record comes from a source that can not be disputed. 
 Realizing that Japan had Isolated Korea from the world by a 
 rigid censorship, the men who brought you this information 
 took their lives in their hands and their integrity and truthful- 
 ness is vouched for by America's best and most upright citi- 
 zens. 
 
 "All of these brutalities and atrocities can not be told. Many 
 of them will never be told. They lie burled in the ashes of 
 ruined villages ; have passed into mortal oblivion along with the 
 sanity of grief-crazed women or lie locked in the breast of the 
 guilty man who perpetrated the outrage. 
 
 "All these things did not occur In the heat of battle. The 
 excitement of mortal combat did not blind men's senses and 
 deprive them of an appreciation of their acts. It was cold- 
 blooded, premeditated, methodical, ruthless brutality. 
 
 " We are appalled spectators, seeing the Koreans a people 
 with no arms, no ammunition, and no weapons of any kind, for 
 the time being helpless before the Japanese, with guns, ammuni- 
 tion, and all modern weapons and instruments of death and 
 destruction. 
 
 " We see a reign of terror that has only one close parallel in 
 history — Belgium. Parallel only In some respects, for Belgium 
 had guns, ammunition, and modern weapons of warfare. She 
 was able to, and did, fight back, defending every inch of her 
 territory. 
 
 " We see back of Korea her 4,000 years of national existence 
 and independence and the moral force that goes with right and 
 justice. We see back of Japan only the materialistic brute force 
 of an imperial autocracy. 
 
 " We are horrified. How long can Japanese autocracy with- 
 stand the contempt that must lie in the heart of her own people 
 and in the hearts of the peoples of all nations? The great 
 battle is on between moral force and brute force, and we wonder 
 whether all this is not for some great purpose — ^to show the world 
 the necessity for ending all autocracy and imperialism. 
 
 " In their patient, persistent way the Koreans were insisting 
 upon the God-given right of free speech, humbly believing that 
 If the world but knew their condition and the injustices to which 
 they were being subjected, that somewhere, some place, all 
 these things would be righted. They plead only for a hearing. 
 Who can say but that their way was best? The world has 
 heard. Japan must now receive the verdict and abide the 
 sentence. 
 
 " IN CONCLUSION. 
 
 " This Korean question, as presented by the facts that we have 
 referred to, presents situations and conditions of strong con- 
 trast. 
 
 " The Koreans, with their modern republican form of govern- 
 ment, representative in character, which stands for the right of 
 self-determination ; the Japanese, with their ancient autocratic 
 government, militaristic to the core, believing in the divine 
 right of emperors. 
 
 " The idealism of the Korean, believing Implicitly In passive 
 resistance only and that right and justice will prevail eventu- 
 ally by sheer force of moral strength, as opposed to the Japa- 
 nese view that might and selfish desire make right and that all 
 things are accomplished by brute force. 
 
 " We have no choice as to the side upon which we must array 
 ourselves. It can not be on the side of the exponents of autoc- 
 racy and brute force. 
 
 " Korea has been shamefully wronged and outraged. We must 
 not permit this shameful outrage to continue, especially if by 
 mere announcement of our position and attitude we can be the 
 means and moral force that will rectify this wrong. 
 
 " Korea does not ask us to physically intervene. Her kindly 
 spirit would be troubled if we were to make any physical sac- 
 rifices in her behalf. All she asks is that we say to Japan that 
 you have been and that you are treating Korea in a shameful 
 and wrongful manner, and that unless you desist and rectify 
 these wrongs by restoring Korean Independence you will be 
 despised and ostracised by all nations. 
 
 " Respectfully submitted. 
 
 " Fred A. Dolph, 
 " Counselor to the Republic of Korea." 
 
 WASHINGTON : GOTEKNMENT PRINTING OITICB : 1919 
 
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