Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-03-11

Shows How 1t Has Become a Neces- With China and Japan-Reas0ns For the War.
 Robert E. speer. lately resident of
 Seoul, Korea, describes in the Worlds Work for March the relations of ko-
 req with China, Japan and Russia,
 also the reasons for the present war,
 as follows:
 In contending against Russia for what
 she regards as her just interests in Ke-
 req, Japan is opening no new issue and
 advancing no fresh claim. Centuries
 before the Russian nation came into ex-
 istence Japan and Korea were in inti-
 mate relationship. and the island en-
 pire regarded the neighboring peninsu-
 la as her proper field of influence. Ear-
 ly in the third century the queen of
 Japan invaded the southern kingdoms
 of Korea, subdued them and wrote on
 the kings gate, The king of Shinra is
 the dog of Japan.' Until the tenth cen
 tury southern Korea paid tribute to Ja-
 pan and not only paid tribute, but also
 civilization-C Chinese philosophy, Confu-
 clan morals and Chinese literature.
 In the middle of the fourteenth cen
 tury Korea came under Chinese vassal-
 age, and the present dynasty was es-
 tablished on the throne. This ended
 >1a
 req and Japan, and thenceforth Korea
 became the middle ground between Ja- pan and China, their common place of
 meeting and conflict.
 In the six centuries which have elapsed since China became the suzer- ain of Keorea there have been repeated attempts by Japan to subjugate the peninsula, and she has probably never in all these years abandoned the de- sign of detaching the kingdom from China and attaching it to herself. The war with China was no accident or avoidable struggle, but a step prepared for and contemplated for centuries and never lost sight of in all the changes through which Japan has passed to- ward a continental enlargement of her empire.
 When Japan had passed through her political transformation the Korean government was summoned to resume ancient friendship and vassalage. An insolent reply was sent to Japan. The nation was not yet ready for action, and the insult was pocketed, though the restoration of superior relations to T[ srfS,, ,o+1 than ever the goal of Japanese foreign policy. In 1876 an unwarranted attack on some Japanese soldiers led to the in- vasion of the peninsula. There was no war, however. China advised the king to accept the first of the alternatives Japan offered-a treaty of commerce or war. Korea chose as China advised. Three ports were opened, and both by China and by Japan Korea was de- clared free and independent
 In 1884 there came another clash be- tween the liberal and conservative fac tions, which ended in the triumph of stagnancy, but recognition on the part of both China and Japan of equal interests and right to intervene.
 When the Tong Hak insurrection threw Korea into disorder in 1894 both countries sent troops, China noti- flying Japan as she did so that Korea was her tributary state and Japan in her reply challenging Chinas claim. This was the real issue at stake in the Chino-Japanese war which en- sued. Japan had never abandoned the idea of controlling Korea, either as a v0cSol Stata q ctatn ind of China and under the tutelage of Japan. TEe war issued in the final demolition of all China's claim to the peninsula, and Korea slipped out for ever from her old moorings in the wake and undertow of Japan.
 Japan kept Korea for just one year, and 1t cannot be denied that she set pace of progress and reform that took the breath out of her ward. All that Japan had learned from civilization she was eager to teach Korea, but the temptations of the situation were too great, and the impatience of the teach CT could not be restrained. She forgot that great changes need time and that civilization is a growth from within and not a garment thrown on from without, and forgetting this and intox- icated with the joy of reform she be- gan to vaccinate the people and to cut their hair, to prescribe the width of their sleeves and the cut of their trousers, and yet while pleased as q child with the chance of teaching the mint and anise and cummin of prog ress she by no means lost sight of the matters of the law. Natural ly people schooled for centuries in Confucian notions, comatose with Chi Hese conservation, even though star tied by the overthrow of their old l patron and the meteoric demonstra- ton of the superiority of western | ways, did not like to be hustled along l in this fashion. The Japanese, on the 1 other hand, became convinced that | they could get Korea civilized yet more | rapidly if the queen, who was not a woman, but only a careful, | shrewd, patriotic stateswoman, could | be disposed of. The idea was mon-