Sir T. Wade to Earl Granville – (Received July 22)

(No. 19 Confidential)
Tientsin
12 May 1882

My Lord,

To come to the Treaty which the United States are about to conclude with Corea, I have the honour to inclose a précis which I have made from the Chinese text of a draught communicated to me, in confidence and for perusal only, by Mr. Holcombe, Charge d’Affaires of the United States.
On my return from Shanghai last December, I found Commodore Shufeldt here at Tientsin, but, although apparently frank about other matters, he was mute regarding Corea. I asked him indeed no question with reference to his mission thither. A Corean official was still here, and in communication with the Grand Secretary Li upon the subject. That high officer none the less assured me that the Coreans continued as deaf as ever to his counsel that they should open their coasts. I shall, however, return to His Excellency later.
Some time after I got back to Peking, Mr. Holcombe began to speak openly to me upon the subject, and having in due time acquainted me that a Treaty was at last under way, I telegraphed that information to Your Lordship. He has since requested me in the event of our following up the American lead, to use my influence in preventing any such intervention as, from its character or its unreasonableness, might embarrass Commodore Shufeldt’s proceedings; I do not say negotiations, for these may be said to have been already concluded here, the agents concerned being the Grand Secretary Li, Commodore Shufeldt and Mr. Holcombe himself. I readily gave him the promise he required and he subsequently put in my hands the draught form from which my précis was made, assuring me at the same time that no other of his colleagues had seen it.
Mr. Holcombe asked me if I contemplated myself proceeding to Corea. I told him that some years ago, when submitting the contingency of negotiations to the Foreign Office, I had suggested that the Corean Government should rather be approached from Yedo than Peking; partly, because from the position of the country, geographically, this course appeared the more natural; partly, because I regarded Sir Harry Parkes as more competent than myself to frame a commercial Treaty. Mr. Holcombe rejoined, with some emphasis, that any difficulty that now might exist would be much aggravated if negotiations were supposed to be inspired from the Japanese tide. Both China and Corea, he said, in relation to this question, most suspect Russia and Japan of hostile designs. In the late negotiations with the Grand Secretary Li, in which he, Mr. Holcombe, had played a chief part, he had found obstacles, more than once, removed by a hint that if China would not help America in this matter, America must fall back on Japan who had already tendered her good offices. On these, of course, he did not much rely; the manifest policy of Japan being to keep Corea closed to everyone but herself.
The points specially deserving of notice in the draught treaty are the following.
In Art. 2, America agrees to appoint none but paid consuls. None of the larger powers has in express terms conceded this to China. America, in particular, although for some years past appointing no merchant a Consul, has more than once distinctly declined to surrender her right to make such appointments where she found it convenient.
In the same Article, it is provided that a Consuls’ exequatur may be withdrawn on appeal to the United States Minister; but only when he, the Minister sees ground. This is new.
In Art. 4, the Administration of Justice in civil and criminal suits, in mixed cases, is provided for much as in this country; but a clause is added pledging the United States Government to surrender its title to exterritoriality whenever the laws shall be brought into harmony with those of the United States. I think well of this.
The Tariff provided under Art. 5, is a novelty, and appears to me more liberal to the native than to the foreigner. As no inland charges exist in Corea, the stipulation that nothing more shall be levied on imports when the Tariff duty is paid, is of no great value. However, as revision of the Treaty is virtually guaranteed in five years, I should be for giving it a fair trial.
Art. 6 will dissatisfy our people, for it restricts them, as in China from 1842 to 1860 they were restricted, to the seaports, and the carriage whether of imports inland or produce from the interior by American citizens, renders the goods so carried liable to confiscation.
Corean officials are not in repute above those of China or Japan, and against the exactions for which we must be prepared at their hands, I see no remedy so long as the interior is inaccessible to the foreigner. I am, nevertheless, for a five years’ trial.
Opium is specially excluded by Art. 7. This was to be looked for. The Coreans have long declared against its introduction. The Grand Secretary declares them equally opposed to the advent of missionaries. But of these no mention is made, and if those interested in mission work are moderately discreet, they will find means, under Art. II, to do all that they could hope to do were their admission formally stipulated for.
There is one Article not in this draught to which I shall request Your Lordship’s attention in the following dispatch.
I have, &c.

Thomas Francis Wade

P.S. In the copy of the treaty fro. which my first précis was made the first Article was omitted. Hence the numbers referred to in this dispatch will all have to be advanced one place; 2 read as 3, 4 as 5, etc.