Sir H.S. Parkes to Mr. Aston.

(Confidential)
Sir,
Tôkiô, March 10, 1883

I THINK you should be informed that I yesterday acquainted the Foreign Minister that you were going to Corea, and I explained to him the object of your mission, but without mentioning the detail of Consular sites. He told me that he had heard the same that morning from Kim Ok Kiun, who had observed that he had gathered from his conversations with me that it was very doubtful whether the British Treaty would be ratified, and inquired what the Foreign Minister thought should be done. Mr. Inouyé replied that, if the Corean Government wished to have a Treaty with Great Britain, they should intimate to you their readiness to lower their proposed Tariff and to give to England equal commercial privileges to those they had granted to China. That he recommended a Tariff on a 5 per cent. basis in the first instance, as a higher one would prevent the growth of trade, but that five or ten years hence, when trade had been fairly established, it might then be possible to raise the Tariff. He added that Kim Ok Kiun had said that he was returning home, and had taken leave of him. He (Mr. Inouyé) entirely concurred in your being sent to Corea in order to ascertain what the Corean Government were willing to do. He thought that it was a very opportune step, and the sooner it was taken the better.
I thereon informed Mr. Inouyé that Mr. Kim Ok Kiun had asked me to give him a passage to Corea in Her Majesty’s ship which conveys you there, and that I had willingly assented.
His Excellency has sent me this morning, by the hand of his Private Secretary, the inclosed despatch, which he wished you to deliver to Mr. Takezoye, the Japanese Minister at Söul. The Secretary informed me that Mr. Takezoye is therein instructed that you are being sent to Corea to learn the views of the Corean Government on the subject of the Treaty. That as the action of Her Majesty’s Government may be greatly influenced by the disposition of that of Corea, Mr. Takezoye is to advise the latter to offer to reduce the Tariff to a 5 per cent. basis, and to signify their readiness to make such other reasonable modifications in the Treaty as will render future relations acceptable to the British Government. Mr. Takezoye is also instructed to render you any assistance that may be in his power.
I need not point out to you the desirability of reciprocating in your communications with Mr. Takezoye the confidence of the Foreign Minister, if you find that the former is acting in the spirit of the above instructions.

I have, &c.
(Signed)　　HARRY S. PARKES