Referring to my despatch No. 2. March 11th, I have the honor to inform you that the promised interview on the subject of Corea between H. Ex. Li Hung-chang and myself occurred at this place on the 25th, inst.
His Excellency authorized the following statement, which I told him intended forwarding to Washington.
The King of Corea and his Prime Minister are in favor of opinion, the country to prepare treaty, and are not only willing but anxious to treat with the United States. But there is a faction at the Court and among the people intensively hostile to the Government. A Corean Envoy has recently visited H. Ex. at Pao-Ting-Fu and it was their determination to ask the Corean King to send an Ambassador to China for the purpose of making a treaty with the United States under the supervisions of H. Ex. the Viceroy to return to Corea show Sept. 5 for to that country the ratification.
To facilitate this arrangement I have submitted a draft of a treaty to the Viceroy, such as I thought would agree with my instructions, and H. Ex. in return has presented me with one which, while stipulating for the Quasi-political dependence of Corea upon China, and containing other features more or less objectionable, is yet not by any means incapable of being reconciled with our demands.
On Saturday next I am to present my objections to this draft to the Hai Kwan Tao Tai, who is empowered to discuss the question with me.
Both Corea and China are anxiously looking for protection against the pending oppression of Japan on the Peninsula. In this connection the Viceroy informed me in entire confidence that the King of Corea would now be glad to see an American man-of-war in the Seoul and H.Ex.advised me by all means to go to that point, and to get as near to the Capital as possible.
If the Corean Ambassador does not reach Tientsin within Thirty days proxi. the 25th inst, then H. Ex. promises either to send me an escort from a Chinese army or to give me such a letter as will insure a friendly reception by the Corean Government and in this annuciation he told me confidentially that he intented to send a Chinese gun boat accompanying me.
I informed H. Ex. that the United States had now been waiting more than a year for the action of the Chinese authorities in the matter of Corea; that the proposition to intricate came from His Excellency; that the United States had accepted it in the a friendly spirit and that I hoped there would be no delay in the actions for shadowed and I further told him that if there was no promise of success by May 1st proximo, I should telegraph the State Department at Washington and advise the abandonment of the proposal. His Excellency said that he had promised me his assistance in this matter, and he intended to fulfil it to the extent of his power.
If my confidence in the promises of the Viceroy has been somewhat shattered, it is from a freed conviction of this uncertainty for my work to Peking, which he is much dipricated has had the effect of impressing him with the fact, that I am no longer to be deceived by the Prefecture that his action is personal to me, or even the evidence of a friendly feeling for the United States.
He is presumed in the fact by the orders of the Imperial Government, and with the part and His Excellency are moved by a Peking which holds between their interest to their fears, not which permits to foreign treaties in the part of Corea, and that country from absorption by Russia and Japan to my fresh damage of the prestige of China.
If a treaty is to be made between the United States and Corea, it will require just care and circumspection. For it will be the basis for all further negotiations on the part of the other Foreign Powers. As the proposal hightens thinkful a render of the responsibility connected with this work, and to appreciate the cooperation of Mr.Holcombe who has twice invited Tientsin with the object of assisting me.
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I have the honor to be-
R. W. Shufeldt