Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/446

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348
THE PASSING OF KOREA

been a more open field for the investment of American capital. The Korean Emperor and people have always looked to us as the one power that had no political wire to pull, no axe to grind, no purely selfish policy to carry out. But in the face of all this, we have been the first to push her over the brink, to accept the outrage of November 17, 1905, without loud and instant protest. Why did the world objurgate the failure of Russia to keep her promises in Manchuria and condemn her as the international felon and then turn about and allow Japan to stultify herself tenfold worse in Korea without protest?

Those who have been on the spot and watched closely the tragic culmination can see something of how the nature of the Emperor, warped by terrible vicissitudes and held for months at a time in the most heart-breaking suspense, has been dwarfed and shrivelled in the furnace. And yet at this very hour he stands firm in his loyalty to his people. He denounces the so-called treaty of November, 1905, and demands the attention of the powers to Japan's treachery.