The passing of Korea/Chapter 11
CHAPTER XI
RUSSIAN INTRIGUE
At this same time we see a clear indication of the trend of events in the return to Korea of An Kyung-su and Kwan Yungjin, two of the best men that late years had developed in Korea. They had been charged with connection with the plot to compass the abdication of his Majesty, and had taken refuge in Japan. Now, on the promise of the government that they should have a perfectly fair trial, and on the guarantee of protection by the Japanese, they returned boldly to Korea and presented themselves for trial. They were strong men and they had to be reckoned with. They openly favoured Japanese influence and the reforms that that influence was supposed to embody. In fact, they were thoroughly in sympathy with the best motives of the defunct Independence Club. An Kyung-su returned on the I5th of January and was held in detention until the i6th of May, when Kwan Yung- j in returned. They were to stand a fair trial, but on the night of the 27th of May they were both strangled secretly in the prison. No more dastardly crime ever stained the annals of this or any other government. Induced to return on the promise of a fair trial, they were trapped and murdered. The reactionists looked upon this as a signal victory, and indeed it was such, for it indicated clearly that a man was not safe even when he had the guarantee of the Japanese authorities. Nor would it be difficult to indicate the source from which the government obtained the courage thus to flout the Japanese.
As the summer came on, all interest in things Korean was held in suspension, while the great uprising in China swelled to such monstrous proportions, and the investment of Peking and the siege of the foreign legations there left the world no time to care for or think of other things. There were fears that the Boxer movement would be contagious and that it would spread to Korea. Indeed it was reported in the middle of July that the infection had reached northern Korea; but fortunately this proved false.
In spite of the reactionary policy of the government, progress continued to be made on certain lines, just as the momentum of a railway train cannot be checked the moment the brakes are applied. A distinguished French legalist was employed as Adviser to the Law Department; mining concessions were granted to British, French and Japanese syndicates; the Government Middle School was established; the Seoul-Chemulpo Railway was formally opened; a French teacher was engaged to open a School of Mines; a representative was sent to the great Paris Exposition.
This year, 1900, was the heydey of another parvenu in the person of Kim Yung-jun. He was a man without any backing except his own colossal effrontery. He had acquired influence by his ability to get together considerable sums of money irrespective of the methods employed. Scores of wealthy men were haled to prison on one pretext or another, and were released only upon the payment of a heavy sum. He was a man of considerable force of character, but, like so many adventurers in Korea, was lured by his successes into a false feeling of security. He forgot that the history of this country is full of just such cases, and that they inevitably end in violent death. Even the fate of Kim Hong-nyuk did not deter him, though his case was almost the counterpart of that victim of his own overweening ambitions. Against Kim Yung-jun was ranged the whole nobility of the country, who waited with what patience they could until his power to extort money began to wane, and then fell upon him like wolves upon a belated traveller at night. But it was not until the opening of the new year, 1901, that he was deposed, tried and killed in a most horrible manner. After excruciating tortures, he was at last strangled to death.
But even as this act was perpetrated, and the fate of all such adventurers was again illustrated, another man of the same ilk was pressing to the fore. This was Yi Yong-ik, who had once been the major domo of one of the high officials, and in that capacity had learned how to do all sorts of interesting, if unscrupulous, things. He was prominent in a felonious attempt to cheat the ginseng farmers of Song-do out of thousands, back in the eighties. He was an ignorant boor, and, even when rolling in opulence, failed to make himself presentable in dress or manner. He was praised by some for his scorn of luxury, and because he made no attempt to hoard the money that he bled from the veins of the people. The reason he did not hoard it was the same that makes the farmer sow his seed, that he may reap a hundred-fold. Yi Yong-ik sowed his golden seed in fertile soil, and it yielded him a thousand-fold.
One of his favourite methods of obtaining money for his patron was to cause the arrest of shoals of former prefects who, for one cause or another, had failed to turn into the public treasury the complete amount nominally levied upon their respective districts. These arrears went back several years, and many of them were for cause. Either famine or flood or some other calamity had made it impossible for the people to pay the entire amount of their taxes. There were many cases, without doubt, in which it was right to demand the money from the ex-prefects, for they had "eaten" it themselves; but there were also many cases in which it was a genuine hardship. Literally, hundreds of men were haled before a court and made to pay over large sums of money, in default of which their property was seized as well as that of their relatives. In exact proportion as the huge sums thus extorted paved his way to favour in high places, in that same proportion it drove the people to desperation. The taking off of Kim Yung-jun, so far from warning this man, only opened a larger door for the exercise of his peculiar abilities, and it may be said that the official career of Yi Yong-ik began with the opening of 1901.
In March a Japanese resident of Chemulpo claimed to have purchased the whole of Roze Island in the harbour of Chemulpo. The matter made a great stir, for it was plain that someone had assumed the responsibility of selling the island to the Japanese. This was the signal for a sweeping investigation, which was so manipulated by powerful parties that the real perpetrators of the outrage were dismissed as guiltless, but a side issue which arose in regard to certain threatening letters that were sent to the foreign legations was made a peg upon which to hang the seizure, trial and execution of Kim Yung-jun, as before mentioned. Min Yung-ju was the man who sold the island to the Japanese, and he finally had to put down thirty-five thousand yen and buy it back.
Russia made steady advances toward her ultimate goal during the year 1901. In the spring some buildings in connection with the palace were to be erected, and the Chief Commissioner of Customs, J. McLeavy Brown, C. M. G., was ordered to vacate his house on the customs compound at short notice. Soldiers even forced their way .into his house. This affront was a serious one, and one that the Koreans would never have dared to give had they not felt that they had behind them a power that would see them through. The British authorities soon convinced the government that such tactics could be easily met, and it had to retreat with some loss of dignity.
Many of the French gentlemen employed by the RUSSIAN INTRIGUE "173 merit were thoroughly competent and rendered good service,' but their presence tended to add to the tension between Japan and Russia, for it was quite plain that all their influence would be thrown in the scale on Russia's side. The attempt to loan the Korean government five million yen was pushed with desperate vigour for many months by the French, but divided counsels prevented the final consummation of the loan, and the French thus failed to secure the strong leverage which a heavy loan always gives to the creditor. Yi Yong-ik, who had become more or less of a Russian tool, was pointedly accused by the Japanese of being in favour of the French loan, but he vigorously denied it. It is generally admitted that Yi Yong-ik was something of a mystery even to his most intimate acquaintances, and just how far he really favoured the Russian side will never be known, but it is certain that he assumed a more and more hostile attitude toward the Japanese as the months went by, - an attitude which brought him into violent conflict with them, as we shall see.
Yi Yong-ik posed as a master in finance, whatever else he may or may not have been, and in 1901 he began the minting of the Korean nickel piece. No greater monetary disaster ever overtook this country. Even the desperate measures taken by the regent thirty years before had not shaken the monetary system as this did. The regent introduced the wretched fivecash piece, which did enormous harm, but that five-cash piece was of too small face value to be worth counterfeiting. The nickel was the ideal coin to tempt the counterfeiter, for its intrinsic value was not so great as to require the employment of a large amount of capital, and yet its face value was sufficient to pay for the labour and time expended. The effects of this departure will be noted in their place.
In the summer of 1901 Yi Yong-ik performed one act that, in the eyes of the people, covered a multitude of other sins. It was a year of great scarcity. The Korean farmers raised barely enough grain for domestic consumption, and in order to pre vent this grain from being taken out of the country the government proclaimed an embargo on its export. In spite of the fact that Japan was enjoying an unusually good crop and did not really need the Korean product, the Japanese authorities, in the interest of the Japanese exporters in Korea, brought pressure to bear upon the Korean government to raise the embargo, utterly regardless of the interests of the Korean people. As it turned out, however, the enhanced price in Korea, due to the famine, and the cutting of a full crop in Japan, prevented the export of rice. But Yi Yong-ik saw that there would inevitably be a shortage in Seoul, and with much forethought he sent and imported a large amount of Annam rice, and put it on the market at a price so reasonable that the people were highly gratified. From that time on whenever the mistakes of Yi Yong-ik were cited there was always someone to offer the extenuation of that Annam rice. It was a most clever and successful appeal to popular favour.
As the year 1901 came to a close, the tension was beginning to be felt. People were asking how much longer Japan would acquiesce in the insolent encroachments of Russia. But the time was not yet. As for material advances, the year had seen not a few. Seoul had been supplied with electric light. The SeoulFusan Railway had been begun. Plans for the Seoul-Wiju Railway had been drawn up. Mokpo had been supplied with a splendid sea-wall. Building had gone on apace in the capital, and even a scheme for a system of water-works for the city had been worked out and had received the sanction of the government. Education had gone from bad to worse, and at one time, when retrenchment seemed necessary, it was even suggested to close some of the schools, but better counsels prevailed, and this form of suicide was rejected.
With the opening of the year 1902 there were several indications that the general morale of the government was deteriorating. The first was a very determined attempt to revive the Buddhist cult. The Emperor consented to the establishment of a great central monastery for the whole country in the vicinity of Seoul, and in it was installed a Buddhist High Priest in Chief, who was to control the whole Buddhist Church in the land. It was a ludicrous attempt, for Buddhism in Korea is dead so far as any specific influence is concerned. Mixed with the native spirit-worship, it has its millions of devotees, but it is entirely unlikely that it could ever again become a fashionable cult.
Another evidence was the constant and successful attempt to centralise the power of the government in the hands of the Emperor. The overthrow of the Independence party, whose main tenet was curtailment of the imperial prerogative, gave a new impulse to the enlargement of that prerogative, so that in the year 1902 we find almost all the government business transacted in the palace itself. The various ministers of state could do nothing on their own initiative. Everything was centred in the throne and in two or three favourites who stood near the throne. Of these Yi Yong-ik was the most prominent.
A third evidence of deterioration was the methods adopted to fill the coffers of the household treasury. The previous year had been a bad one. Out of a possible twelve million dollars of revenue only seven million could be collected. There was great distress all over the country, and the pinch was felt in the palace. Special inspectors and agents were therefore sent to the country armed with authority from the Emperor to collect money for the household treasury. These men adopted any and every means to accomplish their work, and this added very materially to the discontent of the people. The prefects were very loath to forego a fraction of the taxation, because they saw how previous prefects were being mulcted because of failure to collect the full amount, and so between the prefect and the special agents the people seemed to be promised a rather bad time. In fact, it caused such an outcry on every side that the government at last reluctantly recalled the special agents.
Early in the year the fact was made public that Korea had entered into an agreement with Russia whereby it was guaranteed that no land at Masanpo or on the island of K6-je, at its entrance, should ever be sold or permanently leased to any foreign power. Russia had already secured a coaling station there, and it was generally understood, the world over, that Russia had special interest in that remarkably fine harbour. Avowedly this was merely for pacific purposes, but the pains which Russia took to make a secret agreement with Korea, debarring other powers from privileges similar to those which she had acquired, naturally aroused the suspicions of the Japanese and of the Koreans themselves, those of them that had not been in the secret; and this step, inimical to Japan as it undoubtedly was, probably helped to hasten the final catastrophe. Meanwhile Russian subjects were taking advantage of the influential position of their government in Seoul, and, through ministerial influence, some glass-makers, iron-workers and weavers were employed by the government without the smallest probability of their ever doing anything in any of these lines. In fact, at about this time the government was induced to take on quite a large number of Russians and Russian sympathisers, who never were able to render any service whatever in lieu of their pay. In many cases the most cursory investigation would have shown that such would inevitably be the result. It is difficult to evade the conclusion that the government was deliberately exploited.
But at this time another and a far greater surprise was in store for the world. It was the announcement of a defensive alliance between Japan and Great Britain. By the terms of this agreement Japan and Great Britain guaranteed to insure the independence of Korea and the integrity of the Chinese Empire. The tremendous influence of this historic document was felt at once in every capital of Europe and in every capital, port and village of the Far East. It stung the lethargic to life, and it caused the rashly enthusiastic to stop and think. There can be no manner of doubt that this alliance was one of the necessary steps in preparing for the war which Japan already foresaw on the horizon. It indicated clearly to Russia that her continued occupation of Manchuria and her continued encroachments upon Korea would be called in question at some not distant day. But she was blind to the warning. This convention bound Great Britain to aid Japan in defensive operations, and to work with her to the preservation of Korean independence and the integrity of China. It will be seen, therefore, that Japan gave up once and for all any thought that she might previously have had of impairing the independence of this country, and any move in that direction would absolve Great Britain from all obligations due to the signing of the agreement.
The year had but just begun when the operations of counterfeiters of nickel coins became so flagrant as to demand the attention of all who were interested in trade in the peninsula. Japan had most at stake and Russia had least, and this explains why the Russian authorities applauded the work of Yi Yong-ik and encouraged him to continue and increase the issue of such coinage. In March matters had come to such a pass that the foreign representatives, irrespective of partisan lines, met and discussed ways and means for overcoming the difficulty. After careful deliberation they framed a set of recommendations, which were sent to the government. These urged the discontinuance of this nickel coinage, the withdrawal from circulation of spurious coins, and stringent laws against counterfeiting. But this was of little or no avail. The government was making a five-cent coin at a cost of less than two cents, and consequently the counterfeiters, with good tools, could make as good a coin as the government, and still realise enormously on the operation. It was impossible to detect the counterfeited coins in many cases, and so there was no possibility of withdrawing them from circulation. The heavy drop in exchange was not due merely to the counterfeiting but to the fact that the intrinsic value of the coin was nothing like as much as the face value, and by an immutable law of finance, as well as of human nature, it fell to a ruinous discount. But even this would not have worked havoc with trade if, having fallen, the discredited coinage would stay fallen, but it had the curious trick of rising and falling with such sudden fluctuations that business became a mere gamble, and the heavy interests of Japanese and Chinese merchants were nearly at a standstill.
At this point the First Bank of Japan, called the Dai Ichi Ginko, brought up a scheme for putting out an issue of special bank notes that would not circulate outside of Korea. Korea was importing much more than she exported, and the balance of trade being against her it was impossible to keep Japanese paper in the country in sufficient quantities to carry on ordinary local trade. For this reason the bank received the sanction of the Korean government to put out this issue of bank paper, which could not be sent abroad, but would be extremely useful as a local currency. This was done, and it was found to work admirably. The Koreans had confidence in this money, and it circulated freely. It had two advantages not enjoyed by any form of Korean currency, namely, it was a stable currency and suffered no fluctuations, and it was in large enough denominations to make it possible to transfer a thousand dollars from one man's pocket to that of another without employing a string of pack-ponies to carry the stuff.
The one important material improvement of the year was the adoption of a plan for the building of some thirty lighthouses on the coast of Korea. Ever since the opening up of foreign trade, the lack of proper lights, especially on the western coast, had been a matter of growing concern to shipping companies. This concern was warranted by the dangerous nature of the coast, where high tides, a perfect network of islands and oft-prevailing fogs made navigation a most difficult and dangerous matter. The fact that lighthouses ought to have been built ten years ago does not detract from the merit of those who at last took the matter in hand and pushed it to an issue.
The month of May witnessed a spectacular event in the mony of the formal opening of work on the Seoul-Wiju Railway. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Neither French nor Russian money was forthcoming to push the work, and so the Korean government was invited to finance the scheme. Yi Yong-ik was made president of the company, and, if there had been a few thousand more ex-prefects to mulct, he might have raised enough money to carry the road a few miles; but it is much to be feared that his financial ability, so tenderly touched upon by the Japanese minister in his speech on that "auspicious occasion," was scarcely sufficient for the work, and the plan was not completed. There is much reason to believe that this whole operation was mainly a scheme on the part of the Russians to pre-empt the ground in order to keep the Japanese out.
As the year wore toward its close, the usurpation of numerous offices by Yi Yong-ik, and his assumption of complete control in the palace, bore its legitimate fruit in the intense hatred of four-fifths of the entire official class. He was looked upon as but one more victim destined to the same fate which had overtaken Kim Hong-nyuk and Kim Yung-jun. But in his case the difficulties were much greater. Yi Yong-ik had put away in some safe place an enormous amount of government money, and he held it as a hostage for his personal safety. Until that money was safely in the imperial treasury even the revenge would not be sweet enough to make it worth the loss. Not only so, but the whole finances of the household were in his hands, and his sudden taking off would leave the accounts in such shape that no one could make them out, and enormous sums due the department would be lost. Yi Yong-ik had fixed himself so that his life was better worth than his death, however much that might be desired. But the officiary at large cared little for this. There was no doubt that the one person who should accomplish the overthrow of the favourite, and thus bring embarrassment to the imperial purse, would suffer for it, but Korean intrigue was quite capable of coping with a little difficulty like this. The result must be brought about by a combination so strong and so unanimous that no one would ever know who the prime mover was. This at least is a plausible theory, and the only one that adequately explains how and why the scheme miscarried. The whole course of the intrigue is so characteristically Korean, and includes so many elements of genuine humour, in spite of its object, that we will narrate it briefly. It must of course be understood that the officials were keenly on the lookout for an opportunity to get the hated favourite on the hip, and in such a manner that even his financial value to the Emperor would not avail him.
One day, while in conversation with Lady Om, the Emperor's favourite concubine, who has been mistress of the palace since the death of the Queen, Yi Yong-ik compared her to Yang Kwi-bi, a concubine of the last Emperor of the Tang dynasty in China. He intended this as a compliment, but, as his education is very limited, he was not aware that he could have said nothing more insulting; for Kwi-bi by her meretricious arts is believed to have brought about the destruction of the Tang dynasty. In some way the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister heard a rumour that something insulting had been said. They called up the nephew of Lady Om, and from him learned the damning facts. They also knew well enough that no insult had been intended, but here was a " case " to be worked to its fullest capacity. The most sanguine could not hope that the hated favourite would give them a better hold upon him than this : for the position of Lady Om was a very delicate one, and there had been a dispute on for years between the Emperor's counsellors as to the advisability of raising her to the position of Empress. A word against her was a most serious matter.
Everything was now ready for the grand coup, and on the 27th of November fourteen of the highest officials memorialised the throne declaring that Yi Yong-ik was a traitor and must be condemned and executed at once. His Majesty suggested a little delay, but on the evening of that day the same men presented a second memorial couched in still stronger language, and they followed it up the next morning with a third. To their urgent advice was added that of Lady Om herself and of many other of the officials. A crowd of officials gathered at the palace gate, and on their knees awaited the decision of the Emperor. There was not a single soul of all that crowd but knew that the charge was a mere excuse, and yet it was nominally valid. It was the will of that powerful company against the will of the Emperor. The tension was too great, and his Majesty at last reluctantly consented, or at least expressed consent ; but he first ordered the accused to be stripped of all his honours and to render all his accounts. This was nominally as reasonable as was the charge against the man. It was a case of " diamond cut diamond," in which the astuteness of the Emperor won. The accusers could not object to having the accused disgorge before being executed, but it was at this very point that they -were foiled. Yi Yong-ik's accounts were purposely in such shape that it would have taken a month to examine them, for he alone held the key. Nothing can exceed the desperate coolness of the man under the awful ordeal. At one point, just after the acquiescence of the Emperor, the written sentence of death is said to have gone forth, but was recalled just as it was to have gone out of the palace gates, after which there would have been no recall. No man ever escaped by a narrower margin. When Yi Yong-ik presented his accounts the Emperor announced that it would take some days to straighten matters out since the accused was the only man to unravel the skein. Here was probably the crucial point in the intrigue. If the white heat of the day before had been maintained and the officials had demanded instant punishment, accounts or no accounts, the thing would have been done, but as it happened the consciousness of having won relaxed the tension to such a degree that the accused gained time. This time was utilised by calling in a Russian guard and spiriting the accused away to the Russian legation. This accomplished, his Majesty suavely announced that the case would be considered, but that meanwhile the officials must disperse. There were further memorials, resignations en masse, passionate recriminations, until at last two or three officials who had held their peace saw that the game was up, and, in order to curry favour themselves, offered a counter memorial charging Yi Yong-ik's accusers with indirection. This was listened to, and the Prime Minister was deprived of his official rank. This made possible a compromise whereby both Yi Yong-ik and the Prime Minister were restored to all their former honours, and all went " merry as a marriage bell." But it was thought best to let Yi Yong-ik travel for his own and his country's good, so he was made Commissioner to buy Annam rice, which was itself a pretty piece of diplomacy, since it recalled prominently to the people the one phase of the injured man's career which they could unhesitatingly applaud. He was taken off in a Russian cruiser to Port Arthur to buy Annam rice!
When he returned to Seoul a few weeks later, the Japanese lodged a strong protest against his return to political power, but the Russian authorities made a counter-proposition urgingthat he was the only man capable of handling the finances of the country. Under existing circumstances the very protest of the Japanese was an argument in his favour, and he came back into power on the flood tide, backed, as he had never been before, by the full favour of the Russian party. They naturally; expected substantial payment for having saved him, and so far as he was able he liquidated the debt.
Meanwhile another man, Yi Keun-tak, had risen to power through servile adherence to Russian interests. The somewhat enigmatical character of Yi Yong-ik made him to a certain extent an unknown quantity. Not even the Japanese considered him wholly given over to Russia; but this new man was definitely committed to Russian interests, and with his rise to important position it became evident for the first time that the Korean government had decided to rely upon Russia and to reject the aid or the advice of Japan. The end of the year 1902 may be said to have been the approximate time when Japan first realised that all hope of a peaceful solution of the Korean problem was gone. One naturally asks why Korea took this step, and, while we are still too near the event to secure an entirely dispassionate estimate or opinion, there seems to be little doubt that it was because Russia made no pretensions and expressed no desire to reform the administration of the government. She was perfectly content to let things go along in the old way in the peninsula, knowing that this would constantly and increasingly jeopardise the interests of Japan, while she herself had practically no commercial interests to suffer.
The immemorial policy of Russia in Asia sufficiently accounts for her work in Korea. Her policy of gradual absorption of native tribes has never held within its purview the civilising or the strengthening of those tribes, until they have been gathered under her aegis. On the other hand, until that has been accomplished she has either waited patiently for the disintegration of the native tribes or has actually aided in such disintegration. History shows no case in which Russia has strengthened the hands of another people for the sake of profiting.by the larger market that would be opened up; for until very recently the commercial side of the question has scarcely been considered, and even now the commercial interests of Russia depend upon an exclusive market. So that in any case a dominant political influence is the very first step in every move of Russia in the East. Why then should Russia have advised administrative or monetary or any other reform, since such action would inevitably form a bar to the success of her own ultimate plans.
The historian of the future, taking his stand above and out of the smoke of battle, will take a dispassionate view of the whole situation. He will mark the antecedents of these two rival powers; he will compare their domestic and foreign policies, he will weigh the motives that impelled them, he will mark the instruments wielded by each and the men whom they employed as their intermediaries and agents. Then, and not till then, will it be possible to tell whether the present recorders of events are right in asserting that while the policies of both powers are essentially selfish the success of Russia's policy involves the disintegration and national ruin of the peoples she comes in contact with, while the success of Japan's policy, if she only could see it, demands the rehabilitation of the Far East.
Much depended upon the attitude which Korea should finally assume toward these two mutually antagonistic policies. If she had sided with Japan and had shown a fixed determination to resist the encroachments of Russia by adopting a policy of internal renovation which would enlist the interest and command the admiration of the world, the war might have been indefinitely postponed. Whether it could have been finally avoided would depend largely upon the changes that are taking place in Russia herself, where in spite of all repressive agencies education and enlightenment are filtering in and causing a gradual change. Time alone will tell whether the outcome of the war was a blessing or not, for it is not yet certain whether Japan is bent upon territorial expansion or not. Her action in Korea is far from reassuring.
The year 1903 beheld the rapid culmination of the difficulties between Japan and Russia. It had already become almost sure that war alone would cut the Gordian knot, and if any more proof was necessary this year supplied it.