Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-14
CHINESE AND COREANS.
Serious Disorder Reported From the
Frontier.

Iho Pekin Gazette recently printed long re-
port from frontier officials of serious disturb
ances on the Corean borders between Chinese
and Coreaps. 1t appears that at one place the
boundary between Mauchuria and Corea is
formed by the Yalu river, and that Coreans
have long been in the habit Of crossing it for
the purpose Of cutting wood. Seven years ago
a party of them were found thus engaged by
the local constable, who subsequently crossed
over into Corea and recognized the delinquents
In the quarrel which ensued he was killed, and
for four years his family and the Chinese au-
thorities urged the Coreans to arrest and punish
his murderer, but in vain. Three years ago
Chinese wood cutters began to cross the river to
the Corean forests
At first they were not molested but ouite
lately the local Corean magistrates sent body
OF soldiers to demand duty from the Chinese
on the wood they had cut. battle ensued in
which the wood cutters seized the magistrates
the officers, and their troops bound them to-
gether and carried them off into Chinese ter
ritory, and as the first guard house was closed
they took their captives to the house of the son
OF the man who had been murdered in Corea
some years before. He refused to release them
until his fathers murderers were given up, and
to quicken their efforts he promised to kill
every one of them, from chief magistrate to
common soldier, unless his demands were COM
pied with. Hereupon ensued an urgent cor
respondence between tho captives and their
friends on the other side, with the result that
the next day two men we're sent across as the
murderers, one OF whom confessed his guilt
and was Drained on the spot by his victims son
with an AK. Then the Coreans were released
ana the Chinese magistrate began an investi-
cation into the death of the Corean. He in
vited a Corean magistrate to come across and
join him, but the latter begged to be excused
on the ground of other juQicial pnpuonmenta
Meantime the king of Corea addressed a re-
monstrance to the Chinese government on the
subject Of illegal wood cutting on his Manch,,-
ran frontier, and the local magistrate was or
dered from Pekin to inquire into the whole
matter, including the double tragedy above
mentioned. The investigation lasted three
years, owing to the death or absence of material
witnesses; but the upshot is that the son of the
first victim Is sentenced to death for the muir
der OF the second i'll revenge. But Just here
the sentencing magistrate in reminded of "a
recent amnesty, the effect of which is that the
condemned man will be pardoned if he con-
tributes about rs toward the funeral expenses
of the Corean whom he killed. On the other
hand, the Coreans who were carried off
by the wood cutters are degraded for
demanding duty, while the wood cut
tiers who captured them are said to
deserve serious punishment: but as they have
one and all disappeared nothing can be done
until they are arrested. Crossing the Yalu
without passports is prohibited, and the king
of Corea is asked to remove to his own terri
tory 1000 Coreans who have sguatted on the
Chinese side of the river. In this way the
squabbling and disturbances of many years
have, for the present, been brought to n termi-
nation, every one being punished all round
except the valiant wood cutters who carried
the troops and magistrates of the king of Corea
into captivity, and who have for a time pru-
IDENTITY removed themselves from the banks OF
tie lalu.