The record-union., 1896-03-06
CHANGE IN THE CORBAN CABINET
One of the Most Carefully Planned
Affairs in the Countrys History.
Russians Take Leading Hand in Gull
minating the Conspiracy-Pro-
japanese Driven From Office.


SAN FRANCISCO, March 5.-Cor-
respondence of the United Press per
steamer China has been received as
follows:
! TOXIC (Japan), Feb. 1S.-The coup
d'etat in the Corean Capital on the 18th
! of February was the most carefully
/ planned and thorough affair of the
| kind that has taken place in that rest
less country for many years. There is
no longer any doubt that the first act
of the drama was the provincial emeute
of January.
| Diligently represented as mere pop
ular outbreak due to the peoples un-
willingness to obey the Government S
/ hair-cutting edict, the uprisings
throughout the country are now seen
| to have been prepared for the object
of drawing the troops away from the
| Capital, and thus leaving the coast
clear for the conspirators.
So quietly and craftily were all these
preparations made, that not the slightest
indication of what was going on reached
the Cabinet Minister or the Japan Le-
/ cation. Broadly speaking, it was an
leader Kim Pyongsi, the head of the
| Conservative party. The King was
easily persuaded to associate himself
with the affair, on the ground that full
vengeance would be wreaked on every
one connected with the murder of the
| Queen. The Russian Charge d'Affaires
also must have been fully eognizant of
the conspiracy, and must have prom
70 fI,sa,s = 1Axr 1,a
King.
| During the night of February 10th a
detachment of 112 Russian. marines,
carrying with them a field piece, entered
| Seoul. They had marched up from
Chemulpo, having landed from two
| Russian men-of-war, dispatched thither
a week previously. There was no os-
tensible reason for the coming of these
soldiers. Everything so far as could be
| seen was perfectly tranquil in Seoul.
But within few hours of their ar
rival at the Legation the conspiracy
eliminated. The King and the Crown
Prince proceeded to the Russian Lega-
ton. Secure in that asylum, now
strongly guarded, his majesty issued a
proclamation declaring that the country
being perpetually disturbed by treach-
erous rebels nothing remained but to
seek the protection of the foreign rep
reSentativeS.
He also decided that seven prominent
statesmen, leaders of the party of pro-
gress, be decapitated, and their heads
exposed.
Meanwhile orders had been secretly
issued for the arrest and assassination
Of the Minister President, the Minister
of Agriculture, the Minister of Home Af-
fairs and the Minister of War The
two first, suspecting nothing, were
seized without difficulty and decapitated
Immediately in front of the police head
quarters, whence their bodies were
dragged through the streets and finally
burned outside the city
A new Cabinet was formed, the King
issuing his mandates from the Russian
Legation, the compound of which was
guarded within by Russian marines,
without any Corean troops.
OF the seven men whose decapitation
was ordered by the King two were al
ready in Japan. How it Jared with the
rest remains to be discovered. Most
significant was the action taken with
respect to the provincial insurgents.
The troops dispatched against them by
the former Cabinet were Immediately
recalled; proclamation was made that
the peoples true reason for a revolt
had been to avenge the murder of the
Queen, and a general amnesty was an
nounced.
Thus, within a few hours, every ad-
herent of the party of progress. that is
to say the pro-Japanese party. was
driven from office, and the Administra-
tion was placed in the hands of a Cabi-
net headed by Kim Pyong-Si. the leader
OF the conservatives, and composed ex-
clusiyely Of anti-progressive, pro- Rus
sian politicians, the seat of Govern
ment being transferred from the palace
to the Russian Iega tion.