Confidential
No. 147
The Marquis of Salisbury KG
Yedo
December 30, 1878

My Lord,

In the course of a call which I made on the vice Prime Minister Iwakura on the 27th instant, His Excellency introduced the subject of Corea. He referred to the conversations he held with me in September and October 1876, which I reported in my Despatches Nos. 153 and 163 of the same year, and seemed anxious to learn whether Her Majesty’s Government or any European State were disposed to make any endeavor to induce the Corean Government to open their country to Western Powers.
I observed that although I entirely concurred with His Excellency that it was highly desirable in the interests of Corea and also, I might add, of those of Japan and China that Corea should be brought into friendly relations with Western Powers, he had himself indicated in the conversations to which he referred, the difficulties which stood in the way of Her Majesty’s Government making any overtures to that of Corea. I was not aware that the latter government were more willing at this date, than they were in 1876 to receive such overtures in a becoming manner, and as Her Majesty’s Government did not wish to expose themselves to any slight from the Corean Government, which might have to be resented, he preferred to see whether the Treaty concluded between Japan and Corea would have the beneficial effect of modifying the prejudices of the Coreans against foreign intercourse. I enquired whether anything had been done by his Government in reference to a resolution which, I understood, had been presented to the Senate of the United States by an American Senator of April last, by which it was proposed that a Commissioner should be appointed to represent the United States in an effort to arrange, by peaceful means and with the aid of the friendly offices of Japan, a Treaty of Peace and Commerce between the United States and Corea.
His Excellency replied that he knew nothing of this proposal, and I may add that the Foreign Minister gave me a similar answer when I put the same question to him sometime ago. I beg to inclose a copy of the resolution above referred to, which appeared in a local newspaper of last July.
His Excellency Iwakura then observed to me that he did not think Corea would be guided by Japanese advice in respect to the opening of the country. He believed that the influence of China was much more potent in Corea than that of Japan, and he thought it very desirable that Her Majesty’s Minister at Peking should urge the Chinese Government to endeavour to persuade that of Corea to enter into relations with Western Powers without loss of time. The fugitive emigration of Coreans across their frontier into the adjoining Russian territory was, he remarked, a very serious matter as being eminently calculated to promote Russian designs and facilitate future aggression. He believed that more than twenty thousand Coreans had thus fled from their own Government, and had been domiciled under that of Russia.
I observed to His Excellency that I believed this emigration was known in China, and that I had some reason to think that the Chinese Government were becoming sensible that the continued seclusion of Corea might soon prove fatal to the independence of the latter state. Also that they perceived that the maintenance of Corean independence was of great importance to the interests of China, as it was to those of Japan.
For the grounds of this opinion I beg to refer your Lordship to the statements made to me by the Chinese Minister at Yedo, which I reported in my Despatch, Confidential, No. 125 of the 2nd instant.
I have little doubt that the interest in the opening of Corea to Western Powers, which was thus evinced by His Excellency Iwakura, is attributable in some degree to the questions which have lately arisen between Japan and Corea, and which I brought to Your Lordship’s notice in the above-mentioned Despatch.
I have observed for some time past that the Japanese Government do not expect to be able to effect much in inducing the Corean Government to abandon their policy of seclusion, and that the former believe that they would derive support from the presence of other Powers in Corea, and secure by that means the better fulfillment of their own Treaty. The Japanese position in Corea is shown by Mr. Satow’s report (inclosed in my Despatch No. 136 and referred to in my Despatch No. 141, both of this month) to be far from satisfactory or influential. When I called at the Foreign Office, on the 28th instant, the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs seemed as desirous as His Excellency Iwakura to learn whether England or France was inclined to give attention to Corean affairs, and on the same occasion Mr. Yoshida, the Japanese Minister at Washington, observed to me that the resolution of Senator Sargent, above referred to, had fallen to the ground.
I have, &c.

Harry S. Parkes