The record-union., 1895-06-24
THE SITUATION IN COREA
CAUSING AN UNEASY FEELING
IN THE EAST.
Eelief That Russia is Intriguing to
Force Japan to Recognize
Corean Independence.
snecial to the REcoRp-UNIoN.

Special to the RECORD-UNToN.
TOXIC, June 23.-As the days pass they
bring no alienation of the uneasy feeling
that pervades the East with regard to
Corea. There is general sense that
Russia is intriguing in Seoul, and that
she may at any moment call upon the
Japanese Government to fulfill its
pledge of recognizing Corean indeDen-
dence-a pledge that might easily be de-
clared incompatible in continued inter
ference in the little Kingdoms domestic
administration, and with the maintenance
of a large body of Japanese troops in the
peninsula Public uneasiness is ag-
gravated by the news that Count Inouye.
Japanese representative in Corea. is
about to return home.
There is further the consciousness that
if Russia does not seize this occasion, she
will never find another so favorable, and
that she is thoroughly sensible Of the
fact Five years hence Japan will have a
navy that Russia could not grapple with
at such distance from Europe, and on
shore the Japanese troops are already
more than match for any armies that
1AuSSld COAlo DAluE hiiSI NiCib' 4oub
to-day the Japanese navy is weak er than
the powerful squadron assembled in
these waters by Russia, and if ST. Peters
burg says "Get ont of Corea," it is hard
to predict Tokio's reply.
Yet Japan fought China with the ulti-
mate object of saving Corea from Rus
sian occupation. She saw that China
could not protect the little kingdom; that
it could not protect itself. and that in a
few years the shadow of Russia moving
southwark must fall upon it. Are her
victories about to precipitate the very
disaster that they were won to avert?
For England also the situation is full of
danger There is no doubt that British
prestige has suffered by recent events.
For century the trend of great issues
in the Orient had been shaped by dictates
from Downing street. To-day it is
openly boasted that the politics of the
East are controlled from Berlin, St.
Petersburg and Paris. But British pres
tige has wonderfully recuperative facul-
ties. If the abstention of the Queens
government has given continental
Europe occasion to vaunt, it has also won
the heart of the new oriental power.
| Great Britain and Japan would be an
invincible combination in the East.
We're Russia settled in Corea, however,
British commerce and influence would
be alike menaced. Wherever Russia
plants her foot, thence British trade is
sooner or later expelled. By vetoing
Japan's tenure of the Liao Tung PENN
sula, Russia has established a construct
i've right to control its disposal. By COM
pelling Japan to evacnate Corea she
would acquire in the peninsula position
of present dictatorship and of future pos
session. Manchuria would then lie al
her feet, and from Manchuria she could
command the Gulf of Pecbili and Pekin.
The law OF growth is inexorable. Russia
on the Yalu would inevitably prelude
Russia on the Lao. Nothing less than
partition of Asia seems to be at stake,
and the Japanese nation, conscious of the
immense issues involved, watches with
abated breath for the coming of the crisis.