“You spoke much of the kindness and friendship between Japan and Korea, but actually you have drawn away the profits from province after province and district after district until nothing is left wherever the hand of the Japanese falls.  The Korean has been brought to ruin, and the Japanese shall be made to follow him downwards.  We pity you very much; but you shall not enjoy the profits of the ruin of our land.  When Japan and Korea fall together it will be a misfortune indeed for you.  If you would secure safety for yourself follow this rule:  memorialize our Majesty to impeach the traitors and put them to right punishment.  Then every Korean will regard you with favour, and the Europeans will be loud in your praise.  Advise the Korean authorities to carry out reforms in various directions, help them to enlarge the schools, and to select capable men for the Government service; then the three countries, Korea, China, and Japan, shall stand in the same line, strongly united and esteemed by foreign nations.  If you will not do this, and if you continue to encroach on our rights, then we will be destroyed together, thanks to you.

“You thought there were no men left in Korea; you will see.  We country people are resolved to destroy your railways and your settlements and your authorities.  On a fixed day we shall send word to our patriots in the north, in the south, in Pyeng-yang and Kyung Sang, to rise and drive away all Japanese from the various ports, and although your soldiers are skillful with their guns it will be very hard for them to stand against our twenty million people.  We will first attack the Japanese in Korea, but when we have finished them we will appeal to the Foreign Powers to assure the independence and freedom of our country.  Before we send the word to our fellow-countrymen we give you this advice.”

I resolved to try to see the fighting.  This, I soon found, was easier attempted than done.

The first difficulty came from the Japanese authorities.  They refused to grant me a passport, declaring that, owing to the disturbances, they could not guarantee my safety in the interior.  An interview followed at the Residency-General, in which I was duly warned that if I travelled without a passport I would be liable, under International treaties, to “arrest at any point on the journey and punishment.”

This did not trouble me very much.  My real fear had been that the Japanese would consent to my going, but would insist on sending a guard of Japanese soldiers with me.  It was more than doubtful if, at that time, the Japanese had any right to stop a foreigner from travelling in Korea, for the passport regulations had long been virtually obsolete.  This was a point that I was prepared to argue out at leisure after my arrest and confinement in a Consular jail.  So the preparations for my departure were continued.