was ever supported is therefore an impenetrable mystery. It is noteworthy, too, that practically nothing has been done in the matter of searching for minerals; and as coal for the railways has to be exported from Japan, it is high time this

was seen to.

There are at present two railways, both of which should be quite completed by the time these pages see print-the Seoul-Fusan line and the Seoul-Wiju line, and their total mileage will probably in the end amount to some 750 miles. These modern accessories will develop the country very rapidly, do much to change the whole aspect of the Korean question, and will be counted a promising investment.1

1 Since Korean railways may come forward as borrowers, a few words as to their prospects may be given.

The Seoul-Fusan line belongs to a Tokyo limited liability company which purchased on the 30th September, 1903, the Seoul-Chemulpo branch line for the sum of 2,579,100 yen. The mileage now operated by this company amounts to 294 miles. The total estimated initial expenditure for construction, equipment, &c., of the whole line is placed at some 29,000,000 yen, or nearly £2,900,000 sterling. The capital of the company is 25,000,000 yen, but in order that the work should be rapidly completed, the Government issued a special subsidy amounting to two and a half million yen on condition that the rail connection between Seoul and Fusan should take place not later than the 31st December, 1904. This condition having been met, the money has been paid. The extra two or three million yen necessary to complete the work will be probably met by a debenture issue. But not only has the Japanese Government paid a bonus to promote speedy construction, but it has taken upon itself to guarantee six per cent. interest on the Company's subscribed capital for a period of fifteen years, thus safeguarding the shareholders against any possible loss.

As an index to the earning capacity of this line, it may be stated that the gross receipts in January, 1905, were 104,665 yen, but of this

men, and the counted on to tion will not fall

Finally, fishing rights along the entire coast of Korea will soon be possessed by Japanese fishernumber of people who may be engage in this profitable occupafar short of 100,000. It is likely, therefore, by the end of the war that 200,000 Japanese will be directly concerned in Korea's prosperity. If, then, the policy of Korea-for-thepeople-in-Korea, which has been hinted at above, is followed, there is no reason why the country should not become as prosperous and as happy as any in the East. But if the present pettifogging policy is followed there will be trouble.

Note. Since the above was written, a number of steps have been taken which improve the situation somewhat, but which do not yet show that Tokyo has dis

sum nearly half was contributed by the Seoul-Chemulpo section (length only 26 miles). The Seoul-Fusan main line is, therefore, only earning a very small percentage of what it will when the line is properly completed and trade fully developed. By 1907 the gross receipts should amount to 3,000,000 yen per annum and provide sufficient funds to pay the interest guaranteed.

The Seoul-Wiju line, which is some 300 miles in length, has been built by the Japanese military authorities, and no statement regarding its cost has been made public or is to be obtained. But it is reasonable to suppose that its cost will approximate 25,000,000 yen, as the line has been by no means an easy one to build. An extension of this Northern Korean railway, either from Pingyang to Wonsan, or from Seoul to Wonsan, will probably shortly take place, for the east coast of Korea must be placed in rail communication with the capital; and therefore in the end the total mileage of these railways will amount to some 750 miles, and the capital expended £7,500,000. It is not improbable that then the various lines will be turned into one concern under some such name as the "United Korean Railways" and placed on the market with a certain interest guaranteed by the Japanese Government.

abused itself of the idea that Korea should be governed from Japan. The Korean army is to be entirely disbanded and only a Palace Guard of 1,500 men left; the Korean Government, under the advice of Mr. Megata, has contracted a loan of £3,000,000 at 6 per cent., secured on the Korean Treasury with the receipts of the Korean Customs as a collateral security. These three millions are to be used in reforming the currency and calling in all the nickels which are not counterfeit coins. A preliminary examination has disclosed the interesting fact that most of the money in Korea is counterfeit! The Japanese Ministry of Communications has now taken over the Korean Post Office under a special agreement—a measure I consider quite unnecessary, as the leading idea should be the reform and not the absorption of Korea.

Finally, only the transfer of Mr. Allen, the United States Minister at Seoul, has prevented the Emperor from climbing over the American Legation wall, as it has lately come to the Imperial ears that the Japanese were going to invite him very pressingly to go over to Japan. Every day that passes makes it more and more clear that something in the nature of the Administrative Council suggested must be adopted at all costs, and that Korea must be governed from Seoul and not from Tokyo, if Korea is to be really reformed and not merely exploited.

CHAPTER XXV

HOW KOREA SAW THE FIRST ACTS OF WAR

AFTER Admiral Alexeieff had received on the 13th August, 1903, the high-sounding title of Viceroy of the Far East, his chief and only consideration became the consolidating his Imperial Lieutenancy out of the miscellaneous mass of Siberian dependencies, Chinese-leased ports and territory, coveted Manchurian provinces, strategical frontier lines, and Korean neutral strips which went to make up the Far East of the Czar's ukase. The August Decree of the Czar had definitely solved what had been in the Admiral's eyes the most vexatious part of the problem-the question of the amount of support which he could expect from his own Government; for the Autocrat of all the Russias, by making the Viceroy responsible only to a special committee of high persons nominated by himself and presided over by his own person, proved conclusively that there was no question of a Russian retreat from the New Far East but only of a Russian advance. It is true that the Japanese

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had begun their negotiations about the evacuation of Manchuria and desired a definite understanding regarding the exact status of Korea; but the little Japanese, the just Heavens well knew, would be crushed flat, bang, just like that, if they were not very careful. So, as I have already said, the important question was really the consolidating of existing interests and adding new new ones, and if, after all this, the negotiations had to be attended to, a few answering telegrams would always do for those little Japanese. Everyone in Manchuria at the time of the crisis understood this, and no one in Europe has sufficiently realised that this position testified to Russia's view that England had more or less retreated from the Far East since the Anglo-Japanese Alliance; and that, therefore, if Japan was snubbed, the Russian Viceroy might one day actually become Viceroy of an enormous slice of the extreme Orient, because the continent of Europe, ever since the intervention of 1895, acknowledged the Russian leadership, and had already planned the dismemberment of China, on paper. This is a point which is well worth keeping in view, although it is quite by the way.

Of course after the Admiral's elevation to his new rank every other Russian in the Far East became subordinate to him. This is also another point well worth remembering, for never before has any Proconsul in modern times controlled Ministers Plenipotentiary residing at foreign