The morning call., 1894-10-25
THE WAR IN KOREA.


war is exasperatingly slow. By the Cana
dian Pacific steamer which arrived at Vic
toria on Tuesday welcome mail advices
from Japan to October and telegraphic
advices from various points in China,
under date OF Monday and Tuesday, have
come to hand. But from the actual seat
of war we have no official intelligence later
than the last week of September. The
Chinese kilograms bear the usual signs of
being cooked and are untrustworthy. The
stories of attacks on missions in the in
ierior are evidently mere rumors, based
on the fears of the missionaries; the ac-
counts of anti-foreign ebullitions among
the mobs of Honan and Kung Su, though
intrinsically probable. belong to the same
class of news. An item which seems on
its face to be probably true is the one
which states that the Chinese fleet has
sailed from Wei-Hai-Wei to give battle to
the Japanese fleet in the Gulf of Pechili;
if a collision has taken place we ought to
hear the result in a day or two.
1t is extraordinary that with the enor-
nous numerical resources of China we hear
nothing of the movement of large bodies
of men. At the battle of Ping Y ang the
Chinese force engaged does not ssem to
have exceeded 1900 men; indeed,
wherever the belligerents have met, the
preponderance of force seems TO have
been on the side Of the japanese. That
is not the way to carry On war; if Ii
Hung Chang continues to let loose his
forces in dribets the superiority OF China
will avail her nothing, and the japanese,
being the better soldiers, man for man.
will probably be victorious in the end 1t
now looks as though the reputation of the
famous Viceroy had been exaggerated
and that he is not the man people have
taken him to be. Re is certainly showing
none Of the youthful energy which he dis
played when he put down the Tapping
rebellion. He ought, by this time. to have
100000 men in Korea or on its border; 1t
seems doubtful whether he has a full army
corps all told.
The Government at Washington acted
wisely in declining to join the maritime
powers Of Europe in joint Intervention;
first, because those powers have purposes
OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT, while the United
States has none. and secondly, because
the wsest observer OF events cannot at
present forecast the issue of the conflict
1t is hardly possible that the war can end
his address to his Parliament the Mlkado
scarcely veiled his purposes of conquest.
and it is not surprising that the body ad-
iourned after voting supplies. leaving the
executive to carry out his plans as best he
could. The conquest of Korea, in spite of
native resistance and in the teeth of armed
opposition from China, is no slight under
taking. To the American observer it
seems fool enterprise. but perhaps we
are not as we'll able to judge Of the pros
pect as persons on the SPOT.
There is one item in the late news
which may preflgure change. II seems
that the Chinese are getting tired of being
beaten and of having their ships crippled
or sunk. and Lii Hung Chang is engaging
foreigners and placing them in positions of
command The Government a. Peking,
true to the old anti-foreign prejudice, has
thus far insisted on having their regiments
and their armies led by natives and their
meD-Of-war commanded by Chinese sailors.
LII Hung now declares that this is one of
the causes of the misadventures which
have brought disgrace on China, and he
insists. ii he is to be held respons sible, that
he shall be allowed to choose his officers
where he pleases. II is said that within
few weeks number of Englishmen and
Germans have obtained commissions in
the Chinese army and navy. The Vfceroy
would probably be glad to secure the ser
vices of Americans likewise, and we have
number of officers in both services who
are perforce idle, but to whom the depart
ments would possibly be willing to grant
long leaves of absence for the sake of the
training they would obtain in actual SER
vice. If this class Of officers were engaged
and the enormous resources of China
placed at their disposal. the fortunes of
war would probably change, and mum bers,
directed by valor and skill. could not help
telling