Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-19
Trouble Is Feared.

oSilou5 SoiliSioIs IL IL DtIeNtU, VIII take
place tonight between the police and the
rioters.
Marquis Ito Is not likely, 1t is thought
to resort to extreme measures OF repression
until all mild means of pacification have
been exhausted.
Extraordinary police precautions are be-
Ing taken throughout the city.
Briefly the emperor in the imperial re-
script of abdcation expresses his regret
that during the forty-four years of his
reign national calamities have followed in
rapid succession and the peoples distress
become so aggravated that he deemed 1t
now time to transfer the crown to the
heir apparent in conformity with ancestral
usages.t
Yi-Hyeung succeeded King -Hohyel-tjong
on January !. 1864 and was king until he
proclaimed himself emperor on October II,
1897. He was born In 1852 and was mar
ried in 1866 to a daughter of Prince Min
TchirOk, who was murdered in 1895. His
successor would regularly he his son, VI
Syek who was born in 1874.
The emperOr'S abdication is actually tho
result of Japan's effort to limit the SOW
ereign power in some form whereby the
ruler can exercise his powers only with
the consent and approval of the Japanese
resident general. 1t was FASTENED by the
appearance of a Korean deputation at The
Hague peace conference.
Yi-Hyeung has protested his ignorance
of this move and has hitherto refused to
take the advice OF his ministers and
render the throne. on the ground that II
would tend to confirm his relation thereto.
But Viscount Hayashi, the japanese min
lister of foreign affairs, is on his way to
Seoul. with the design, it is supposed. to
serve on the emperor the ultimatum that
he etieher abdicate or apologize to The
Hague delegation and acknowledge the
treaty of November Il last, which vi
Hyeung says he never signed.
At the emperor's palace Japanese police
recently replaced Koreans in anticipation OF
the present turn of affairs. The II Ching
Hoi, a progressive pro-Japanese party in
Korea, with a membership of more than a
million, has been openly hostile to the en-
peror. He is reported as having been too
worried of late either to eat sleep.
He has always been exceedingly distrust-
full of those about him. At each meal he
had his boiled rice served in a locked sill
yer bowl, of which he always kept the key.
In 1898 Queen Min the consort of vi
Hyeung, was assassinated and her body
was cremated in the royal palace at Seoul
by Japanese ruffians For a time after that
the emperor slept by day and held his cabi-
net meetings at night. 1t is said that his
two greatest fears since then have been
assassination and the return from Japan
of Korean mobiles who had been exiled.
The emperor personally has been described
as a pleasant gentleman" The crown
prince studied In Japan and was tutored
by the scholarly American missionary the
Rev. James S. Grale. who did an I'M
abridged dictionary into the Korean tongue.
The prince has forsaken Korean dress for
tight western costume.
The danger point in Korea has been a
corrupt court dominated by eunuchs and
soothsayers. But Marquis Ito has insisted
upon firm but kindly policy of education
and industrial development supported by q
would, he hoped, finally react upon court