Comparison of New Regime with Old

WHILE ON HOME leave from Dairen in 1927, I received my promotion to Consul-General and was appointed to Seoul where I spent those happy but uneventful years from 1928 to 1931. The Corea I came back to was very different from the Corea I had left in 1910. At that time the Coreans were not resigned to their fate and small armed bands of insurgents roamed the country. The official organ daily reported clashes between these bands and Japanese soldiers, gendarmes or police. Outside the big towns it was dangerous for a Japanese to stir out unarmed and still more dangerous armed, for then his arms invited attack. On the main roads, gendarmerie stations were strung out every twelve-and-a-half miles and when I travelled by road from Wŏnsan (Gensan) to Seoul, I made the first seventy-five miles under escort.

Amidst so much tragedy one little incident afforded comic relief. The Salvation Army had just opened up a Corean branch. The news spread round among the Coreans that a British army had arrived – no doubt to deliver them from the Japanese – and when officers of the army proceeded to a provincial town they were startled to be met en-route by the local insurgents who wished to join forces with them. Fortunately, the sense of proportion of the Japanese was not so distorted by xenophobia as it is now and the incident did not embitter relations between the Salvation Army and the authorities.

In 1928 the Coreans, though inwardly discontent, had resigned themselves to the new regime and, materially, were far better off as a result of the change. Malcontents flirted with communism and, from time to time, were rounded up and imprisoned. But the mass of the people asked only to be allowed to live in peace. The Japanese, with characteristic energy, had opened up communications, had revolutionised public services and had developed industry and trade. During the three years I was stationed in Seoul I travelled over most of the country in comparative comfort and found law and order everywhere.

Decline in Importance of Chemulpo

Foreign interests in Corea had declined and were approaching vanishing point. In 1909 I had enjoyed my first spell of authority as Acting Consul at Chemulpo for several months.