to secure the concession of a site suitable for a naval station, and through virtue of a lumber felling concession on the Yalu, she has located herself at Yong-an-po. In May 1903, too, a commercial commission travelled from Seoul to Wi-ju, overland.
As rapidly as circumstances permit, Russia is connecting her Manchurian telegraphic system with the trunk lines of Korea, and telegraphic communication is in course of construction between Mukden and Wi-ju, Vladivostock and Won-san. The action of Russia in this respect has encountered very great opposition from Korea. When the Korean Cabinet declined to grant permission for the erection of the poles, for which the Russian engineers had not waited, M. Pavloff, the Russian Minister, delicately hinted that the removal of the poles would be regarded as an unfriendly act, and one liable to create unpleasantness between the two Governments. The Korean Government, however, were not frightened into drawing back, and for some months past the local officials have been occupied in cutting down whatever poles the Russians might erect. Russia, also, proposes to rebuild the telegraph line from Pekin to Seoul viâ Wi-ju, while further, it is her avowed intention to construct from Mukden a branch of her railway to An-tung on the Yalu River.
Russia has been associated, also, with the Korean army, the Russian military authorities having lent a number of drill-instructors to the Korean service. They have now been withdrawn. The management of the residence, in which apartments are found for the guests of the Imperial Court, has been entrusted to a Russian lady, Miss Sontag. There are very few Russian residents in Seoul. Those who live there comprise the immediate personnel of the Legation, the
