coast. In very few years, therefore, the small Korean Customs Service will have grown to very respectable dimensions and will possess an importance for international trade which the Japanese cannot disguise from themselves.

In 1896 Mr. McLeavy Brown, in addition to his other duties, was placed by a Royal Decree in charge of Korean finances with results which were soon apparent. Tightening his fingers on the pursestrings, he refused to allow one spurious nickel to be disbursed except in the last extremity, and under his control surpluses and not deficits began to be the order of the day. As a consequence of this policy, Korea's only foreign loan-a Japanese 6 per cent. 3,000,000 yen loan-was all repaid excepting a balance of a quarter of a million yen which the Japanese Government specially arranged to leave outstanding for political reasons; whilst in addition rigid economy made it possible for the Chief Commissioner to carry out a revolutionary plan which provoked the most violent opposition. Seoul was cleaned up, hovels were torn down ruthlessly, splendid thoroughfares one hundred feet broad laid out, and well-metalled highways driven far out into the country. Arrangements were being made to extend the new roads through whole provinces when intrigue forced Mr. McLeavy Brown to throw up the position of Financial Adviser in favour of a Russian. He had, however, done such good work in the short time at his disposal that the results were far-reaching. Cart traffic has already begun

to have a most important effect on Korean trade and industry, and it is due almost entirely to the Chief Commissioner's initiative that this is the case.

Meanwhile the Korean Customs Service had grown considerably, until to-day it numbers 350 employees. Of these indoor and outdoor officials there are but fifteen British subjects, showing the impartiality which Englishmen may be relied upon to exhibit in the service of foreign countries. Amongst the others are six Germans, three Italians, three Americans, one Frenchman, two Norwegians, one Portuguese, ninety-five Japanese, twenty-three Chinese, and two hundred and one Koreans—a cosmopolitan gathering almost equal to that shown in Sir Robert Hart's service. English, however, is the official language, with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean as sub-languages. In every Custom House you will find Englishmen, Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese in their various national dresses, working harmoniously together and sublimely indifferent to the mist of "political situations" which surround them. To gaze at them whilst mighty battles are being fought in Manchuria, which must sooner or later influence them all, recalls to mind the Commissariat clerks labouring on their invoices before Sebastopol, who were heavily fined every time they left their desks to try and see something of the epoch-making events being thundered out a few miles beyond them.

The revenue which this Korean service collected in 1904 amounted to no less a sum than

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1,845,250 yen, or say £185,000. Although no separate statistics are published showing the provenance of imports or the destination of exports, as an interesting experiment the Chief Commissioner ordered special tables to be prepared showing the nationality and origin of all foreign imports which entered Chemulpo and paid duty during the four months September, October, November, and December, 1904. I have already mentioned the fact that during 1904 nearly £400,000 worth of Manchester cottons entered Korea. This extraordinary investigation carried out at Chemulpo revealed conclusively that British imports entering this one port during these four months amounted to 2,206,234 yen— £220,000, or 35 per cent. of the total figure, 6,292,576 yen; while Japanese imports, considerably inflated by an extraordinary demand brought about by the large numbers of Japanese newlyarrived in the country, amounted to but forty per cent. of the whole. In other words, British imports were only 4 per cent. behind Japanese imports at the most important port of the country. Everyone will admit that this is a very gratifying and undeserved result, seeing the indifference with which Korea has been regarded by British merchants in the past. Moreover, it is believed in the Chief Commissioner's office that England may claim more than thirty-five per cent. per annum of the entire imports into Korea; and in favour of this contention the argument is advanced that during September, 1904, British imports into Chemulpo exceeded those

of Japanese origin and amounted to forty-one per cent. of the total importation.

Far behind this British and Japanese trade lags the commerce of other nations. In the four months which have been used as a basis for these calculations, China claimed thirteen per cent. of the imports: the United States 7 per cent.; Germany two per cent.; France less than half per cent. ; whilst the other countries had only insignificant decimals to their credit. It may therefore be said that four nationalities, British, Japanese, Chinese, and American, control the trade of Korea.

It will have been noticed that China has thirteen per cent. of the imports of Chemulpo to her credit. Chinese merchants, long established at the open ports, conduct their own trade and compete fiercely with the Japanese. How is the large British import trade conducted? I have the honour to state that the Chinaman himself is pleased to represent Manchester and other British products, and, as a sapient middleman dealing at close prices, undersells Osaka, if necessary, to make a market. With Hongkong

and the Straits Settlements, and now the Rand, depending largely on the Chinaman, most people would have imagined that England's indebtedness towards the yellow-skinned man finished there. It has never been, nor will it ever be, confined to such insignificant areas. Everywhere in the Far East the Chinaman represents what must be ultimately classed as British interests, and touts for British stuffs and manufactures because having used them

he knows that they are durable and worth their price and more the Far East does not seek to know. So long as good and solid workmanship remains the hall-mark of British manufactures, all the Far East will buy in quantities which will be only limited by the buying-power of the countries concerned. In Korea, an insignificant country about which very few know anything, the total British imports during 1904 reached £1,000,000 sterling, and this result was largely obtained by the help of the Chinese middleman, who, labouring under great difficulties, can yet undersell the Japanese if he wishes.

It is quite clear, however, that something should be immediately done to foster this trade. Proper steam-communication must be established between Shanghai and Chemulpo, and between Chefoo and all the Korean coast ports. Seeing that the vast majority of the ten millions of Korea wear undyed cotton clothes, and that the development of the country through the indirect agency of railways, manufactories, mining, and a reformed internal administration will be very rapid once the Japanese see their way more clearly than they do at present, the possibilities of the future in the matter of trade are very great. Already in 1904 the total of Korean commerce, imports and exports, reached the large figure of 52,240,974 yen, or more than five millions sterling. Assuming the population of the country to be ten millions, this trade is equal to ten shillings per head-already a noteworthy result. In