Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-08-07
JAPAN MILD
TO KOREANS
GOVERNMENT TELLS HOW IT HAS
AIDED HERMIT KINGDOM
BIG LOAN FLoATED BY MARQUIS
ITO
Mlkado Claims Action In Possessing
Country Is indicated Under
the Treaty of
1904
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6.--The far east
mails. lust arrived, contain a pamphlet
issued from the Japanese residency gen
eral of Korea entitled ADMINISTERING
Reforms in Korea" designed to Vlnul-
cate the work of the japanese IN the
hermit kingdom under the authority
conferred nv the Japanese-Korean agree"
ment of 1904 whereby Japan was consul
tuted adviser to Korea. The document
treats of the financial difficulties that
confronted Marquis Ito at the outset
owing to the inadequacy OF the horeaii
excheuuer to bear the cost OF reform
He succeeded in raising loan from ll'e
Japanese Industrial bank of lO,OoO'ooV yen'
guaranteed by the customs receipts pear
ing interest at 6le per cent ana SUI" e'
80 ven per 100 yen.
THE money realized was distributed in
the reconstruction of roads, in building
water works, establishing an educat1onal
system. the creation of banks and erec-
ton of hospitals 1t is said the Korean
roads were totally unfit for horse ana
carriage travel, so that 1t became neces-
sary to allot 100000 yen in laying out
four great roads to traverse the regions
of best promise and connect the pest
harbors and railway centers
Prior to the residency there was IN
vogue a Confucian educational method,
whereby a village teacher called about
him the children of the neighborhood
and taught them the rudiments OF read
ing and writing. There were 1O,OOO OF
these schools and at Seoul an institute
of higher Confucian learning. A primary
school ordinance, promulgated in lSUo,
was dead letter and the middle grade
schools in Seoul, with the exception OF
one in foreign languages, existed in name
only.
New System Adopted
An entirely new system has been es-
tablished. first Importance being given to
disseminating common education under
Japanese instructors. The existing hos
pitfalls, defective in management and lin
tied in accommodations and equipment,
have been consolidated into the great
Korean hospital" The police depart
ment, which had really been in tripli-
cate, has been unified. Of the remark
able attempt at publication of the i'm
perial court the pamphlet, after painting
a striking picture of the corruption and
sloth that existed, describes the reform
measures adopted and says:
I'm court circles there were no doubt
some who at first felt alarm at this
radical turn of affairs, but the sterling
sincerity of the resident generals solicit
tude becoming gradually better known
the force of resentment mas since Slack
ened, until no voice is now heard in
active opposition"
The way in which justice had been
administered in Korea, it says, sis too
revolving to all sense of decency to be
told in detail"
The country has not yet attained5 that
stage which for the executive and judicial
departments are important, so the sys
TEN of justice is regarded as a thing
to be farmed out; bribery is general
innocent people are convicted and their
property confscated and the guilty are
liberated. All this, says the pamphlet,
is being reformed by the Japanese.
In conclusion the pamphlet says the
Japanese have provided the Koreans with
a code of laws regulating the develop
ment of native mines, providing for the
protection of immigrants and encourage
ing the development of productive in
dustries.