Yet, While It Was Evident That Corea
Would Not Be Renounced Without A Struggle, The Pekin Authorities, For Some
Years,
Met the Japanese encroachments with a weak and vacillating policy.
As early as 1876, the Mikado's advisers entered on a
Course which
obviously aimed at the attainment of commercial, if not, also, political,
ascendency in the Hermit Kingdom. An outrage having been committed upon
some of her sailors, Japan obtained, by way of reparation from the court
of Seoul, the opening of the port of Fushan to her trade. Four years
later, Chemulpo, the port of Seoul, was also opened. These forward steps
on the part of the Japanese aroused the Chinese to activity, and, in 1881,
a draft commercial treaty was prepared by the Chinese authorities in
council with the representatives of the principal powers at Pekin, and
sent to Seoul, where it was accepted. The Japanese alleged, however, that
they possessed a historical right to an equal voice with China in the
Corean peninsula, and that, consequently, the treaty to which we have just
referred required their ratification. To sustain this claim, the Japanese
allied themselves with the Progressive party in Corea, a move which
compelled the Chinese to lean upon the Reactionists, who were opposed to
the concessions lately made to foreigners, and who, as events were to
show, were preponderant in the Hermit Kingdom. In June, 1882, the Corean
Reactionists attacked the Japanese Legation at Seoul, murdered some
members of it, and compelled the survivors to flee to the seacoast.
Thereupon, the Mikado sent some troops to exact reparation, and the
Chinese, on their part, dispatched a force to restore order.
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