The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-05
END or A NArror.


 END or A NATION.
 The passing of nation out of ex- istence as a, political entity. as Korea has done, rarely ocurs without crcat- ing ripple of excitement among the nations of the earth, but this has been an exception. It has lost what of in- dependence 1t had and become . de- pendency of Japan almost without the knowledge of the rest of the world.
 And yet. as The Hartford courant says. the result has been as inevitable as anything could be from the condi- tons. Korea had reached that stase of Oriental imbeciiity and corruption where she was of no use to herself. The only public capacity still possessed by her was the capacity for foreign intrigue; and her geographical relation to the empire of Japan placed 1t out or the question that she should be left free as government to pursue that particular form of industry any longer It was not useful to the Koreans at all; the only individual Koreans who profited by 1t were those palace ofh- cials and court favorites who sold their 1 infiuencA for hard cash: and 1t was continuouA menace to the peace of Ja- pan. The late war. fortunately for both Japan and the Korean people. brought ! the solution of all this. Korea was m | one road to the seat of war in Man | churia. and Japan naturally took meas
 ures to keep that particular road open. It is probable that under the stress and urgency of active military opera tions some of the Japanese officials concerned were rather arbitrary. We see that George Kennan. who has been studying the situation on the spot. thinks so, and the probabilities are that he is right; although it must in fair ness be added that the mass of Koreans would not know that they had Gov ernment unless 1t was arbitrary. The
 treaty of Portsmouth recognizes this special position of Japan in Korea, just as the treaty of Shimonoseh between
 Japan and China did. and just as the treaty of alliance between Great Britain and Japan does. The right of Japan to the special authority first exercised by her in recent times in Korea prac- tically as an incident of the late war -as a geographical necessity--has thus substantially become the public law of those parts.
 The Kingdom of Korea, or Corea, .'The Chosen" as tho natives choose to call 1t. or "the hermit nation" as it if often referred to is mentioned in Chinese records as much as three thous- and years ago, and has, mostly been regarded as part of China, yet 1t has maintained a kind of sieeply existence, useless to itself and the rest of the world.
 As The Brooklyn Eagle looks on it. the world will not be astonished at the swift absorption of Korea. The pur- pose of Japan was discounted as long aso as the hopelessness of the Russian campaign In Manchuria was publicly revealed. The colonization and admin
 istration of the Hermit Kingdom by the subjects of Mutsuhito have been inevitable ever since the Japanese. more than a decade since. demonstrated that of the two great yellow races tn the orient they were entitled to the first place. More and more. as the events of the recent struggle recede into per- spective. will men become convinced that even had Russia held to Port Ar thur and Mukden, the csar could never have obtained substantial foothold south of the Tumen. With her mag nificent navy Japan had fastened grip upon Korea which only a superhuman effort could have unloosed. The com piete surrender of the Korean ruler will therefore be acepted as the logical if not necessary outcome of tho Treaty of Portsmouth. The monarch at Seoul will rule as the Khedive rules in Egypt, as the native princes rule in India. as the potentates of Annam and Camboqia under the French potentates. and as our one colonial Sultan rules in Sulu. He will be allowed to play at govern ing while the business affairs of his country are directed from Fokio.