Sir H.S. Parkes to Earl Granville.—(Received February 14, 1884)

(No. 53)
My Lord,
Peking, December 16, 1883

I HAVE the honour to inclose copy of a despatch which I have received from Mr. Hall, Her Majesty’s Acting Consul at Nagasaki, forwarding to me a claim for debt brought by a Japanese subject in Corea, and communicated to MR.Hall by the Acting Japanese Consul-General at Pusan.
Mr. Hall having suggested that some provisional arrangement should be made for dealing with such cases, I have pointed out in my reply, of which I beg to inclose a copy, that until the Queen shall have acquired, as she would acquire by the ratification of the Treaty signed at Söul on the 26th ultimo, jurisdiction over British subjects in Corea, her officers can provide no legal remedy for any civil or criminal wrong that her subjects may commit in that country, and that although the latter are doubtless at present amenable to Corean law, it would not be politic on our part to suggest its application in the case at least of civil suits occurring between foreigners in Corea.
The case in question is important only in its indications. As Mr. Hall observes, there are already several British subjects stationed at the Corean ports, and it is probable that others will be resorting thither very shortly. Not only that, but I fear that many of the first comers may belong to that class of needy and questionable adventures, known under the appellation of “roughs,” who suddenly turn up in every new field, however remote, in which law is preceded by enterprise. We had prejudicial experience of this contingency in the earliest days of our intercourse with Japan, and I should regret to see that experience repeated in Corea. The man Harrison of the present case, who appears to have refused to pay the Japanese complainant for his board and lodging, belongs probably to that class, and I believe I am not doing an injustice to several loungers whom I noticed during the few hours I spent at Chemulpho on the 29th instant in including them in the same fraternity.
The conclusion to which these remarks point is the urgent desirability of giving effect to the Queen’s jurisdiction over British subjects in Corea as soon as this can be done, if Her Majesty should be pleased to ratify the Treaty signed on the 26th ultimo. As British subjects would be withdrawn by that Treaty from Corean control, and in view of the possibility of that freedom being abused by the class to which I have referred, I think it to be due to the friendly Government of Corea, as well as to our own reputation and the interests of the orderly British subjects who may repair to Corea, that that jurisdiction should be promptly established and effectively exercised.

I have, &c.
(Signed)　　HARRY S. PARKES