(No. 137)
Confidential
The Earl of Derby
Yedo
August 15, 1876

My Lord,

I have the honour to report, in explanation of the telegram which I forwarded to Your Lordship on the 13th instant, that on the previous day I visited the Vice Prime Minister by invitation, and that His Excellency referred at once to the conversation relative to Corea which passed between us at our last interview, and which I reported to Your Lordship in my Despatch No. 133.
His Excellency informed me that he had submitted to the Cabinet my suggestions that Japan should endeavor to persuade the Corean Government to enter into relations with Foreign Powers, that the Japanese Government were now of opinion that it was desirable that they should act in accordance with those suggestions, and that, on the return of Mr. Miyamoto, they would take up the question and use all their influence for that purpose.
It affords me much pleasure to make this announcement to Your Lordship, as from the moment that I found that the visit of the Corean Envoy to Yedo denoted the establishment of a friendly understanding between the two countries, I have urged the Japanese Government to take a resolution of this nature. For the reasons stated in my Despatch No. 102 the Foreign Minister hesitated to give me any assurance on the subject; he was afraid to awaken suspicion on the part of the Coreans by spontaneously advising them to accept intercourse with foreign countries, but if a foreign government had taken any step, or had proposed to take any step, for the purpose of opening relations with that country Japan could then have acted as the adviser of the Coreans without exciting their distrust, and with some prospect of being listened to.
The present resolution of the Government is perhaps attributable in some measure to favorable accounts received from Mr. Miyamoto, and partly perhaps to a desire that Japan should not be behind China in the counsels of Corea. Another object is also discernable in a remark made to me by the Vice Prime Minister that he believed that some of the Coreans were satisfied that in order to hold their country against Russia they must make friends among other Powers.
The Government do not appear to have yet heard of Mr. Miyamoto’s arrival at the capital, but a letter from one of his suite reporting his visit to Fusan while en route to his destination has been published, and shows that the Coreans received him at that place with much more cordiality than they have ever before shown. He appears to have been willingly entertained in Dorai, the city to which Moriyama had vainly striven for years to gain admission, and the Governor or Prefect of that city returned his visit on board his ship at Gorio, this being I believe the first time that Corean Authorities have paid an official visit to a Japanese ship. I enclose a translation of this account.
I have the honour to be with the highest respect,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s most obedient humble servant

Harry S. Parkes