Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/239

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DIPLOMACY
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well-known Chinese system, which in her own case is founded upon treaty rights.

The affair of the Corean political criminals in Japan, arising as an immediate consequence of the affair of 1884, and continuing down to the very eve of the great war, hopelessly entangled the relations between Japan on one side and China and Corea on the other. On the failure of the coup d’état of December, 1884, the chiefs of the Japan party, Kin-giok-kin, Boku-ei-ko, Jo-ko-han, etc., had fled to Japan, and from there they went to the United States, with the exception of Kin-giok-kin, who lived in Tokyo under the assumed name of Imata Shinsaku. The Corean Government sent Mollendorff and Jo-so-un to Tokyo to ask for the extradition of Kin-giok-kin, but the demand was refused on the double ground of there being no treaty of extradition between Japan and Corea, and of Kin-giok-kin being a political criminal. To the Coreans, however, furthest removed from any idea of international law, this refusal seemed to mean that Japan harboured secret plans against Corea. Several would-be assassins now offered their services to the Corean Government, chiefly for pecuniary ends. One of them, named Chi-un-ei, came to Tokyo in February of 1886, and fell into the snares set by the crafty Corean students under the patronage of Kin-giok-kin. He showed to the students a letter patent from the King of Corea giving him full powers ‘to go beyond the sea and capture or deal with the rebel as convenience required.’ In his possession was also found a letter which proved that Li-Hung-Chang and En-sei-gai had also been consulted in connection with Chi-un-ei’s mission. Chi-un-ei offered 5,000 yen to any of the students who succeeded in assassinating Kin-giok-kin. In order to avoid complications, the Japanese Government ordered Kin-giok-kin to quit the soil of Japan without delay, and at the same time telegraphed to Seoul demanding of the Corean Government whether it had really given such full powers to Chi-un-ei. The Corean Government disavowed this, and asked the Japanese Government to send back Chi-un-ei under escort, which was done. Kin-giok-kin wanted to go to America, but, as he was not in possession of sufficient means to do so, was ordered to retire to Ogasawara Island, which orders he refused to obey, and was in consequence dragged out of his lodging and sent thither by force. As his health required a cooler temperature, he was afterwards removed to Hokkaido, where he remained for two years under police superintendence, till, in 1890, owing to comparative calm in Corea, he was permitted to return to Tokyo. Meanwhile, Boku-ei-ko had also returned from America, and the presence of these two so-called