The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-02-08
Trial of Lieutenant-Ge General Wis
count Miura and Others Ar.
rested With Him.
ALL THE ACCUSED ACQUITTED
An Insurrection in Korea Caused by
Attempts to Change the Style of
Dressing the Hair.


yolyed is 10000 900 yen, or about $67. OOO.-
600 in gold, and it will be increased by a
further sum of rs, 600, 600 yen in May, when
the Chinese pay the second instalIment of
the indemnity. Japanese financiers have
had to choose between the chance of fall
in the silver price of gold and the probable
effect of large purchase of silver in the
open market. They have decided that the
risks connected with the latter transaction
outweigh the danger of the former con-
tingency. The indemnity will, therefore,
remain in London and be applied grad
ually to meet payments abroad on account
of ships and material of war, steel rails,
ard so forth.
The trial of the ex-Minister to Korea,
Northumberland Vlscount Miura, and
the other officers and officials arrested in
connection with the coup d'etat in the
Korean capital on October has ended in
the acquittal of all the prisoners. The
military men-a ieutenant-colonel, a
major and six captains-were tried by
court-martial, the charge against them
being abuse of power in moving the troops
under their charge in such a manner as
TO disturb the peace of friendly state and
to involve bloodshed. They were &C.
quilted, evidence having been produced
that they acted in accordance with the
orders OF the Minister, whom they were
bound in duty to obey, and that they had
no reason to foresee any consequences suf-
hciently unlawful to warrant dlsobedience.
AS for Viscount Miura and the forty-
seven members OF the legation and con-
sular staffs arraigned with him, the public
procurator attempted to obtain their con-
viction under the criminal accusation of
having been accessory to the murder of
the Queen. 1t was found impossible, how
ever, to procure testimony such as would
satisfy a court of law of the Viscount's
criminality in that sense, and he and the
rest were acquitted. The event has caused
some excitement in Japan, and evoke
from the local foreign journals their usu
anti-Japanese criticisms. They claim that
because the attempt h@s failed to prove
Viscount Miura criminal 1t must be as
sumed that he had the instructions of
his Government to support the insur-
rection of the Tai Wonkun AS a matter
of course, the Viscount's responsible
ity toward the administration that sent
him to Korea and his responsibility toward
the penal code of his country are totally
different things. No reasonable person
supposes for moment that in aiding a
coup d'etat which had for its object the
dethronement of the Queen of Korea he
was acting in accordance with the instruc-
tons of a Government whose aim was to
increase the Queens power and direct it's
employment into progressive channels.
The reduction of the insurgents in For
mosa Is proceeding steadily but slowly.
II appears that there still remain in For
mosa many thousands of disbanded Chi
nese troops and that they have succeeded
in enlisting the sympathy if not the active
aid of considerable section of the in
habitants. 1t will cost Japan much trouble
and treasure to subdue these rebels COM
pletely, but she evidently feels that her
honor is involved in achieving the task.
Another blow has been given to the
system of employing Chinese compra-
do-es in foreign mercantile houses in
Japan. Ching Voting, compradore OF an
English firm-Messrs. Findlay, Richard
son 81 Co.-has been arrested upon a
charge of appropriating to his own use
$4,000 belonging to the firm. Ching's
methodfof procedure was to ascertain the
lowest price that the firm would take for
the goods of which it wished to dispose,
and then to pocket the difference between
that price and the sum actually procured
by selling the goods. 1t is another ex-
ample of the extraordinary confidence
still placed by foreign firms in their Chi
nese compradores despite frequent defal-
cations on the part of the latter, and de.
spite the fact that, however ill a firms
AfYofro re-
invariably grows rich.
A sanguinary disturbance occurred in
Kiang-y1n on the 18th OF December. Some
Cantonese soldiers offered violence to a
woman keeping an opium-shop. Her
screams quickly summoned a number of
villains, and she rushed into the street
raising a hue and cry such as Chinese
women alone can achieve. Very soon the
soldiers had to flee for their lives, but they
quickly obtained a reinforcement of sew
eral hundred comrades, and returning to
the scene OF their discontinue were met
by motley crowd of citizens. A free
hsht ensued, ending in the death of three
men, TWO soldiers and one civilian, and
the wounding OF many on both sides.
Inc soldiers were eventually driven back,
the city gates shut and peremptory de-
mands Tor reparation made upon the gen.
eral IN command. A week afterward 1000
OF the soldiers were sent away, but they
oId not all accept their punishment
quietly. A portion of them resisting had
10 oe surrounded, disarmed and marched
on board ship under an escort with loaded
rifles.
An instruction has occurred in Korea
owing TO cause probably unparalleled in
history, namely. the Governments at
tempts to make the people dress their hair
in foreign fashion. This innovation was
inaugurated in the capital by royal de-
cree, the King and the Crown Prince them
selves setting the example. Rumors spread
among the provincials in the southeast of
the peninsula that the new fashion was to
be forced upon them at the point of the
bayonet, and that troops were already en-
- ha toT 10 4 Al,