The Battle of Chemulpo.... Russian survivors on neutral boats.... Blowing up of the Koryetz.... sinking of the Variak.... Russians leave Korea.... hospital in Chemulpo.... skirmish at Pyeng Yang.... Korean Japanese Protocol.... end of Peddlar’s Guild.... Marquis Ito.... Yi Yong Ik retires.... Japanese conservative policy in Korea.... skirmish at ChÖng-ju.... suffering of Koreans in north.... apathy of Korean Government.... burning of palace in Seoul.... Korean currency.

It was a cloudless but hazy day and from the anchorage the Japanese fleet was all but invisible, for it lay at least eight miles out in the entrance of the harbor and partly concealed by Round Island which splits the offing into two channels. The two boats made straight for the more easterly of the channels, their course being a very little west of south. When they had proceeded about half the distance from the anchorage to the enemy’s fleet the latter threw a shot across the bows of each of the Russian boats as a command to stop and surrender, but the Russians took no notice of it. The only chance the Russians had to inflict any damage was to reduce the firing range as much as possible for the Variak’s guns were only six inches and four-tenths in caliber and at long range they would have been useless. This was at five minutes before noon. The Japanese fleet was not deployed in a line facing the approaching boats and it was apparent that they did not intend to bring their whole force to bear upon the Russians simultaneously. We are informed that only two of the Japanese vessels, the Asama and the Chiyoda, did the work. It was not long after the warning shots had been fired that the Japanese let loose and the roar that went up from those terrible machines of destruction tore the quiet of the windless bay to tatters and made the houses of the town tremble where they stood. As the Variak advanced she swerved to the eastward and gave the Japanese her starboard broadside. All about her the sea was lashed into foam by striking shot and almost from the beginning of the fight her steering-gear was shot away so that she had to depend on her engines alone for steering. It became evident to her commander that the passage was impossible. He had pushed eastward until there was imminent danger of running aground. So he turned again toward the west and came around in a curve which brought the Variak much nearer to the Japanese. It was at this time that the deadly work was done upon her. Ten of her twelve gun-captains were shot away. A shell struck her fo’castle, passed between the arm and body of a gunner who had his hand upon his hip and, bursting, killed every other man on the fo’castle. Both bridges were destroyed by bursting shell and the Captain was seriously wounded in the left arm. The watchers on shore and on the shipping in the harbor saw flames bursting out from her quarter-deck and one witness plainly saw shells drop just beside her and burst beneath the water line. It was these shots that did the real damage for when, after three quarters of an hour of steady fighting, she turned her prow back toward the anchorage it was seen that she had a heavy list to port which could have been caused only by serious damage below the water-line. As the two boats came slowly back to port, the Variak so crippled by the destruction of one of her engines that she could make only ten knots an hour, the Japanese boats followed, pouring in a galling fire, until the Russians had almost reached the anchorage. Then the pursuers drew back and the battle was over. The Koryetz was intact. The Japanese had reserved all their fire for the larger vessel. The Variak was useless as a fighting machine, for her heavy list to port would probably have made it impossible to train the guns on the enemy, but all knew that the end had not yet come. The Russians had neither sunk nor surrendered. The threat of the Japanese to come in at four o’clock was still active. As soon as the Variak dropped anchor the British sent off four hospital boats to her with a surgeon and a nurse. Other vessels also sent offers of aid. But it was found that the Russians had decided to lie at anchor and fight to the bitter end and at the last moment blow up their vessels with all on board. What else was there for them to do? They would not surrender and they could not leave their ships and go ashore only to be captured by the enemy. They would play out the tragedy to a finish and go down fighting. Upon learning of this determination the commanders of the various neutral vessels held another conference at which it was decided that the Russians had done all that was necessary to vindicate the honor of their flag and that, as it was a neutral port, the survivors should be invited to seek asylum on the neutral vessels. The invitation was accepted and the sixty-four wounded on board the Variak were at once transferred to the British cruiser Talbot and the French cruisercruiser Pascal. As the commanders of the neutral vessels knew that the Variak and Koryetz were to be sunk by the Russians they paid no particular attention to the reiterated statement of the Japanese that they would enter the harbor at four and finish the work already begun. The passengers, crew and mails on board the steamship Sungari had already been transferred to the Pascal and an attempt had been made to scuttle her but she was filling very slowly indeed. It was about half-past three in the afternoon that the officers and crew of the Koryetz went over the side and on board the Pascal. A train had been laid by which she would be blown up and it is supposed that she was entirely abandoned, but some spectators assert that they saw several men on the forward deck an instant before the explosion took place.

It was generally known throughout the town that the Koryetz would be blown up before four o’clock and everyone sought some point of vantage from which to witness the spectacle. Scores of people went out to the little island on which the light-house stands, for this was nearest to the doomed ship. It was thirty-seven minutes past three when the waiting multitude saw two blinding flashes of light one following the other in quick succession. A terrific report followed which dwarfed the roar of cannon to a whisper and shook every house in the town as if it had been struck by a solid rock. The window-fastenings of one house at least were torn off, so great was the concussion. An enormous cloud of smoke and debris shot toward the sky and at the same time enveloped the spot where the vessel had lain. A moment later there began a veritable shower of splintered wood, torn and twisted railing, books, clothes, rope, utensils and a hundred other belongings of the ship. The cloud of smoke expanded in the upper air and blotted out the sun like an eclipse. The startled gulls flew hither and thither as if dazed by this unheard of phenomenon and men instinctively raised their hands to protect themselves from the falling debris, pieces of which were drifted by the upper currents of air for a distance of three miles landward where they fell by the hundreds in peoples’ yards.

When the smoke was dissipated it was discovered that the Koryetz had sunk, only her funnel and some torn rigging appearing above the surface, if we except her forward steel deck which the force of the explosion had bent up from the prow so that the point of it, like the share of a huge plow, stood several feet out of water. The surface of the bay all about the spot was covered thickly with smoking debris and several of the ship’s boats were floating about intact upon the water.

The Variak was left to sink where she lay. The forty-one dead on board were placed together in a cabin and went down with her. She burned on till evening and then inclining more and more to port her funnels finally touched the water and with a surging, choking groan as of some great animal in pain she sank. As the water reached the fires a cloud of steam went up which illuminated by the last flash of the fire formed her signal of farewell.

It was arranged that the British and the French boats should carry the Russians to a neutral port and guarantee their parole until the end of the war.

This wholly unexpected annihilation of the Russian boats naturally caused consternation among the Russians of Chemulpo and Seoul. The Russian Consulate was surrounded by the Japanese troops and the Consul was held practically a prisoner. The Japanese Minister in Seoul suggested to the Russian Minister through the French Legation the advisability of his removing from Seoul with his nationals, and every facility was given him for doing this with expedition and with comfort. A few days later all the Russians were taken by special train to Chemulpo, and there, being joined by the Russian subjects in Chemulpo, they all went on board the Pascal. This vessel must have been crowded, for it is said that when she sailed she had on board six hundred Russians, both civilians and military men.

Twenty-four of the most desperately wounded men on board the neutral ships were sent ashore and placed in the Provisional Red Cross Hospital. For this purpose the English Church Mission kindly put at the disposal of the Japanese their hospital at Chemulpo. Several of these wounded men were suffering from gangrene when they came off the Pascal but with the most sedulous care the Japanese physicians and nurses pulled them through.

After this battle at Chemulpo there was no more question about landing Korean troops further down the coast; in fact as soon as the ice was out of the Tadong River, Chinnampo became the point of disembarkation. But meanwhile the troops which had landed at Chemulpo were pushing north by land as rapidly as circumstances would permit and within a few weeks of the beginning of the war Pyeng-yang was held by a strong force of Japanese. At the same time work was pushed rapidly on the Seoul-Fusan Railway and also begun on the projected railway line between Seoul and Wiju.

As for the Russians they never seriously invaded Korean territory. Bands of Cossacks crossed the Yalu and scoured the country right and left but their only serious purpose was to keep in touch with the enemy and report as to their movements. On February 28 a small band of Cossacks approached the north gate of Pyeng Yang and after exchanging a few shots with the Japanese guard withdrew. This was the first point at which the two belligerents came in touch with each other.

It was on the night of February 23rd that Korea signed with Japan a protocol by the terms of which Korea practically allied herself with Japan and became, as it were, a silent partner in the war. Korea granted the Japanese the right to use Korea as a road to Manchuria and engaged to give them every possible facility for prosecuting the war. On the other hand Japan guaranteed the independence of Korea and the safety of the Imperial Family. It is needless to discuss the degree of spontaneity with which Korea did this. It was a case of necessity, but if rightly used it might have proved of immense benefit to Korea, as it surely did to Japan. It formally did away with the empty husk of neutrality which had been proclaimed, and made every seaport of the peninsula belligerent territory, even as it did the land itself.

March saw the end of the Peddlars Guild. They had been organized in Russian interests but now they had no longer any raison d’etre. As a final flurry, one of their number entered the house of the Foreign Minister with the intent to murder him, but did not find his victim. Other similar attempts were made but did not succeedsucceed.

The Japanese handled the situation in Seoul with great circumspection. The notion that they would attack the pro-Russian officials proved false. Everything was kept quiet and the perturbation into which the court and the government were thrown by these startling events was soon soothed.

Marquis Ito was sent from Japan with a friendly message to the Emperor of Korea and this did much to quiet the unsettled state of things in Korea. At about the same time the northern ports of Wiju and Yongampo were opened to foreign trade. This was a natural result of the withdrawal of Russian influence. It was not long before Yi Yong-ik who had played such a leading rÔle in Korea was invited to go to Japan and thus an element of unrest was removed from the field of action. It was believed that the Japanese would immediately introduce much needed reforms, but it seemed to be their policy to go very slowly, so slowly in fact that the better element among the Koreans was disappointed, and got the impression that Japan was not particularly interested in the matter of reform. It is probable that the energies of the Japanese were too much engaged in other directionsdirections to divert any to Korea at the time. They had been complaining bitterly about the monetary conditions, but when they suddenly stepped into power in Seoul on February 9th they seemed to forget all about this, for up to the end of 1904 they failed to do anything to correct the vagaries of Korean finance. But instead of this the Japanese merchants in Korea and other Japanese who were here for other reasons than their health immediately began to make requests and demands for all sorts of privileges. The Board of Trade in Fusan asked the Japanese government to secure the Maritime Customs service, permission for extra territorial privileges, the establishment of Japanese agricultural stations and other impossible things.

Meanwhile the Japanese were steadily pushing north. At Anju a slight skirmish occurred but there was nothing that could be called a fight until the Japanese reached the town of ChÖng ju where a small body of Russians took a stand on a hill northwest of the town and held it for three hours, but even here the casualties were only about fifteen on either side. The Russians evidently had no notion of making a determined stand this side the Yalu. Already, a week before, the Russian troops had withdrawn from Yongampo and had crossed to Antung. This fight at ChÖng-ju occurred on March 28th and a week later practically all the Russian forces had crossed the Yalu and Korea ceased to be belligerent territory. It is not the province of this history to follow the Japanese across that historic river and relate the events which occurred at the beginning of May when the first great land battle of the war was fought.

The whole north had been thrown into the greatest confusion by the presence of these two belligerents. Cossack bands had scurried about the country, making demands for food and fodder a part of which they were willing to pay for with Russian currency quite unknown to the Korean. From scores of villages and towns the women had fled to the mountain recesses at a most inclement season, and untold suffering had been entailed. But these are things that always come in the track of war and the Koreans bore them as uncomplainingly as they could. Throughout the whole country the absorption of the attention of the government in the events of the war was taken advantage of by robbers, and their raids were frequent and destructive. As soon as the government found that the Japanese did not intend to rule with a high hand it sank back into the former state of selfcomplacent lethargy, and things went along in the old ruts. It was perfectly plain that Korean officialdom had no enthusiasm for the Japanese cause. It is probable that a large majority of the people preferred to see Japan win rather than the Russians, but it was the fond wish of ninety-nine out of every hundred to see Korea rid of them both. Whichever one held exclusive power here was certain to become an object of hatred to the Korean people. Had the Russians driven out the Japanese the Koreans would have hated them as heartily. Whichever horn of the dilemma Korea became impaled upon she was sure to think the other would have been less sharp. Few Koreans looked at the matter from any large standpoint or tried to get from the situation anything but personal advantage. This is doubtless the reason why it was so difficult to gain an opinion from Korean officials. They did not want to go on record as having any decided sympathies either way. The people of no other land were so nearly neutral as were those of Korea.

The month of April was comparatively quiet. The Japanese were struggling north through frost and mud combined to rendezvous on the banks of the Yalu. On the 14th occurred the great fire in Seoul which in a few hours swept away almost the whole of the KyÖng-un Palace, the one recently completed and the one occupied by the Emperor at the time. He was forced to vacate it in haste and take up his abode for the time being in the detached Imperial Library building. A strong effort was made by the Japanese to induce him to return to the ChÖng-duk Palace, which was his place of residence at the time of the emeutes of 1882 and 1884, but this was combatted with all the means available, and the burned palace was rebuilt as quickly as possible.

The temporary effect of the war upon the Korean currency was to enhance its value. Imports suddenly came to a standstill because of the lack of steamships and the possible dangers of navigation. This stopped the demand for yen. The Japanese army had to spend large sums in Korea and this required the purchase of Korean money. The result was that the yen, instead of holding its ratio of something like one to two and a half of the Korean dollar fell to the ratio of one to only one and four tenths. When, however, the sea was cleared of the Russians and import trade was resumed and the bulk of the Japanese crossed the Yalu the Korean dollar fell again to a ratio of about two to one, which it has preserved up to the present time, i.e. December, 1904.

From the time when the Russians retired beyond the Yalu warlike operations between the two belligerents werewere confined to northeast Korea though even there very little was doing. The Vladivostock squadron was still in being and on April 25 it appeared at the mouth of Wonsan harbor. Only one small Japanese boat was at anchor there, the Goyo Maru, and this was destroyed by a torpedo boat which came in for the express purpose. Of course this created intense excitement in the town and there was a hurried exodus of women and children, but the Russians had no intention of bombarding the place and soon took their departuredeparture. Only a few hours before, the Kinshiu, a Japanese transport with upwards of 150 troops on board, had sailed for Sung-ju to the north of Wonsan but meeting bad weather in the night the torpedo-boats that accompanied her were obliged to run for shelter and the Kinshiu turned back for Wonsan. By so doing she soon ran into the arms of the Russian fleet and refusing to surrender she was sunk, but forty-five of the troops on board effected their escape to the mainland.

It was only a few days before this that a force of Cossacks had made a dash down the eastern coast as far as Ham-heung which they entered after a two hours’ skirmish with Korean troops. They burned about 300 houses in the suburbs of the town and also fourteen kan of the celebrated “Ten Thousand Year Bridge,” the longest in Korea. After this they retired to the north. But from that time on the whole northeast has been scoured by parties of Russians and the Japanese have paid no attention to them except to place troops at Wonsan and Ham-heung to hold these places. On August 8th a small Russian force penetrated south to the very suburbs of Wonsan but were speedily repulsed by the Japanese who had thrown up intrenchments and were quite ready to meet any assault. The Russians worked with great energy in repairing the road from the Tuman River down to Sung-su, and even south of that place. They even built good graded roads across two of the high passes south of Sung-jin until they came in contact with the Japanese outposts twenty miles above Ham-heung. Neither side seemed to desire to assume the offensive and so matters stood until the end of the year, and the coming of the northern winter put a stop to active operations. The only other incident worthy of mention in this connection was the wanton attack upon the town of Wonsan by the Russian fleet on the last day of June. On that morning seven Russian torpedo-boats entered the harbor and after inquiring where the Japanese barracks and other public buildings were situated began shelling the town. In a panic the peaceful denizens of the place fled to the shelter of the hills. The Russians gave no warning of the attack even though many foreigners of various nationalities resided there and might easily have been injured. After firing over 200 shells without doing any considerable damage the torpedo boats withdrew.

We must now go back and inquire into important civil matters. We have seen that no strong attempt was made by the Japanese to secure reforms in the administration of the Korean Government and for this reason many of the best Koreans werewere dissatisfied with the way things were going. Therefore it was doubly unfortunate that on the seventeenth of June the Japanese authorities should make the startling suggestion that all uncultivated land in the Peninsula as well as other national resources should be thrown open to the Japanese. This appears to have been a scheme evolved by one Nagamori and broached by him so speciously to the powers in Tokyo that they backed him in it; but there can be no question that it was a grave mistake. There is no other point on which the Korean is so sensitive as upon that of his land. He is a son of the soil, and agriculture is the basis of all his institutions. The mere proposal raised an instant storm of protest from one end of Korea to the other. The Koreans saw in this move the entering wedge which would rive the country. It was the beginning of the end. This excessive show of feeling was not expected by the Japanese and it is probable that their intentions were by no means so black as the Koreans pictured them. The very general terms in which the proposal was worded and the almost entire lack of limiting particulars gave occasion for all sorts of wild conjectures and, it must be confessed, left the door open to very wide constructions. The time was unpropitious, the method was unfortunate and the subject-matter of the proposal itself was questionable. The all-important matter of water supply and control, the difficulties of jurisdiction on account of the extraterritorial rights implied in the proposal and other allied questions immediately presented themselves to the minds of Koreans and they recognized the fact that the carrying out of this plan would necessarily result in a Japanese protectorate if not absolute absorption into the Empire of Japan. The Japanese do not seem to have followed the logic of the matter to this point or else had not believed the Koreans capable of doing so. But when the storm of protest broke it carried everything before it. The Japanese were not prepared to carry the thing to extremes and after repeated attempts at a compromise the matter was dropped, though the Japanese neither withdrew their request nor accepted the refusal of the Korean Government. It is a matter of great regret that the Japanese did not quietly and steadily press the question of internal reforms, and by so doing hasten the time when the Korean people as a whole would repose such confidence in the good intentions of the neighbor country that even such plans as this of the waste lands could be carried through without serious opposition; for it is quite sure that there is a large area of fallow land in Korea which might well be put under the plow.

During the weeks when the Japanese were pressing for a favorable answer to the waste land proposition the Koreans adopted a characteristic method of opposition. A society called the Po-an-whe was formed. The name means “Society for the Promotion of Peace and Safety.” It had among its membership some of the leading Korean officials. It held meetings at the cotton guild in the center of Seoul and a good deal of excited discussion took place as to ways and means for defeating the purpose of the Japanese. At the same time memorials by the some poured in upon the Emperor, beseeching him not to give way to the demands. The Japanese determined that these forms of opposition must be put down, so on July the 16th the meeting of the society was broken in upon by the Japanese police and some of the leading members were forcibly carried away to the Japanese police station. Other raids were made upon the society and more of its members were arrested and its papers confiscated. The Japanese warned the government that these attempts to stir up a riot must be put down with a stern hand and demanded that those who persisted in sending in memorials against the Japanese be arrested and punished. If the Korean government would not do it the Japanese threatened to take the law into their own hands. The Japanese troops in Seoul were augmented until the number was fully 6,000.

The agitation was not confined to Seoul, for leading Koreans sent out circular letters to all the country districts urging the people to come up to Seoul and make a monster demonstration which should convince the Japanese that they were in dead earnest. Many of these letters were suppressed by the prefects but in spite of this the news spread far and wide and the society enrolled thousands of members in every province.

The effect of this was seen when, early in August, the Japanese military authorities asked for the services of 6,000 Korean coolies in the north at handsome wages. The number was apportioned among different provinces, but the results were meager. Disaffected persons spread the report that these coolies would be put on the fighting line, and it was with the greatest difficulty that two thousand were secured. There were sanguinary fights in many towns where attempts were made to force coolies to go against their will. It was perfectlyperfectly right for the Japanese to wish to secure such labor, but the tide of public sentiment was flowing strong in the other direction because of the attempt to secure the waste land and because of the suspension of the right of free speech.

The cessation of Japanese efforts to push the waste land measure did not put an end to agitation throughout the country, and the Il-chin society continued to carry on its propaganda until on August 22nd a new society took the field, named the Il-chin SocietySociety. This was protected by the Japanese police who allowed only properly accredited members to enter its doors. This looked as if it were intended as a counter-move to the Il-chin Society, and as the latter was having very little success a third society took up the gauntlet under the name of the Kuk-min or “National People’s” Society. The platforms promulgated by all these societies were quite faultless but the institutions had no power whatever to carry out their laudable plans and so received only the smiles of the public.

During the summer the Japanese suggested that it would be well for Korea to recall her foreign representatives. The idea was to have Korean diplomatic business abroad transacted through Japanese legations. Whether this was a serious attempt or only a feeler put out to get the sense of the Korean government we are unable to say, but up to the end of the year the matter was not pushed, and the nomination by the Japanese of Mr. Stevens, an AmericanAmerican subject as adviser to the Foreign Office would seem to indicate that the existing diplomatic arrangements will be continued for the time being.

The various societies which had been formed as protests against existing conditions stated some things that ought to be accomplished but suggested no means by which they could be done. The difficulty which besets the country is the lack of general education, and no genuine improvement can be looked for until the people be educated up to it. For this reason a number of foreigners joined themselves into the Educational Association of Korea, their aim being to provide suitable text books for Korean schools and to help in other ways toward the solution of the great question. About the same time the Minister of Education presented the government with a recommendation that the graduates of the Government schools be given the preference in the distribution of public offices. This had no apparent effect upon the Government at the time, but this is what must come before students will flock to the Government schools with any enthusiasm. Later in the year a large number of Koreans also founded an Educational Society. It made no pretensions to political significance but went quietly to work gathering together those who are convinced that the education of the masses is the one thing needed to put Korea upon her feet, in the best sense.

In September there was celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Protestant Christian missions in Korea. A great convention had been arranged for and leading men were to attend it but the war interferedinterfered with the plan and the convention was postponed till 1909, when the quarter-centennial will be celebrated. In spite of this a memorable meeting was held and the results of ChristianChristian work in Korea were set forth and discussed. We need say no more here than that this field is rightly considered as being one of the most successful in the world and as giving promise of great things in the future.

In the middle of October the Japanese military authorities sent Marshal Hasegawa to take charge of military affairs in Korea. He arrived on the thirteenth and shortly after went to Wonsan to inspect matters in that vicinity. The news of considerable Russian activity in northeast Korea seemed to need careful watching and the presence of a general competent to do whatever was necessary to keep them in check.

The laying of the last rail of the Seoul Fusan-Railway was an event of great importance to Korea. It adds materially to the wealth of the country both by forming a means of rapid communication and by enhancing the value of all the territory through which it runs. It also gives Japan such a large vested interest here that it becomes, in a sense, her guarantee to prevent the country from falling into the hands of other Powers. But like all good things it has its dangers as well.

Mr. Megata, the new adviser to the Finance Department arrived in the Autumn and began a close study of Korean monetary and financial conditions. This was an augury of good, for Korean finance has always been in a more or less chaotic condition since the time when the late Regent flooded the country with discarded Chinese cash and a spurious Korean coinage whose lack of intrinsic value gave the lie to its face.

Late in the year Mr. Stevens, the newly appointed adviser of the Foreign Department, took up his duties which, though less important than those of Mr. Megata, nevertheless gave assurance that the foreign relations of the government would be carefully handled.

As the year came to a close there were evidences that the Japanese were about to begin what should have been begun before, namely a gradual reform in the administration of the government. Useless offices are to be abolished, the army is to be brought down to its proper proportions, retrenchment is to be effected in various other lines and education is to be encouraged. On the whole the year closed with brighter prospects in Korea than any former portion of the year had shown.

The termination of an historical survey covering four thousand years of time naturally suggests some general remarks upon that history as a whole. And in the first place it is worth noting that the Korean people became a homogeneous nation at a very early date. Before the opening of the tenth century they were so firmly welded together that no sectional difference has ever seriously threatened their disruption.

Since the year 700 A. D. there have been two bloodless changes of dynasty but there has not been a single successful revolution, in the ordinary sense of the word. There have been three great and several small invasions but none of these left any serious marks upon the country either in the line of inter-mixture of blood or of linguistic modification. They served simply to weld the people more closely together and make the commonwealth more homogeneous than ever.

In the second place the power has always been in the hands of the men of greatest average wit, and it has uniformly been used to further personal aims. The idea of any altruistic service has been conspicuously lacking, though there have been brilliant exceptions. The concept of individuality or personality is strangely lacking in all Turanian peoples and this it is which has kept them so far in the rear of the Indo-European peoples in the matter of civilization. The essential feature of true progress, namely the recognition of the present time as on the whole the best time, the present institutions as being the best institution, the present opportunities as being the best opportunities, the present people as being the best people that history has to show—this feature is sadly lacking in the Far East. Japan has grafted this into her life and it already bears fruit, but Korea stands with China as yet.

Individual people cannot be sure of getting their just deserts in this life whether they be good or evil, but this is hardly true of nations. They generally get about what they have deserved. If men lived as long as empires they too might be served the same. It is poor philosophy to mourn the fate of a decadent empire or a moribund civilization. They have served their purposespurposes and are ready to pass away. Upon their ruins there are sure to arise edifices that are worthier of habitation than were those of the past. In Korea the old is passing away, is crumbling about our ears. The new wine is bursting the old bottles. The question for the future to answer is whether the Korean people will allow their ship of state to drift upon the SargassoSargasso Sea until the seaweed “rising strake on strake” shall make her utterly derilict, or whether they will awake from their lethargy, clear away the barnacles and jam the helm down hard a-port until the wind fills the sails and she can forge ahead toward some desired haven.

It is not the province of the historian to play the prophet nor shall we try to forecast what the future may bring forth, but it is permissible to express the hope that Korea will make herself increasingly worthy of a continued and distinguished history.