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

(No. 54 Confidential)
Peking, December 16, 1883

My Lord,

THE Treaty signed at Söul on the 26th ultimo provides in Article 11 that “the High Contracting Parties may each appoint a Diplomatic Representative to reside permanently or temporarily at the capital of the other, and may appoint a Consul-General, Consuls, or Vice-Consuls to reside at any or all of the ports or places of the other which are open to foreign commerce.”
Those ports and places are named in Article IV by their Corean names of Chemulpho [or Jenchuan], Wönsan [or Gensan], Pusan [or Fusan], and the town of Yanghwachin-the words in brackets being the Chinese or Japanese names for those places, which should be replaced by the correct Corean appellations now that the latter have become known to us. Article III further provides that; “Jurisdiction over the persons and property of British subjects in Corea shall be vested exclusively in the duly authorized British judicial authorities.”
In order to carry out the above-mentioned stipulations, it will be necessary to provide that a Diplomatic Representative of Her Majesty shall be accredited to the Court of Söul, and that Consular officers invested with magisterial and judicial powers, as in China, Japan, and elsewhere, shall be appointed to the various ports above named.
Presuming that your Lordship will expect to receive from me some statement of opinion relative to these appointments, I venture to submit the following recommendations to your Lordship’s consideration.
I consider that it would be unnecessary, at the outset at least of our intercourse with Corea, to incur the expense of appointing to that country a special Legation. The United States of America, it is true, have seen fit to accredit to Corea a Diplomatic Representative, with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, but I did not find that that appointment gave to that Power in Corea a degree of influence which could not be acquired by other means. I could, indeed, perceive that General Foote was disappointed in the results of his appointment as a Minister of that rank, which it was supposed would have weight with the Coreans. He had endeavoured in vain, he told me, to obtain, during the six months of his residence, some modifications of the objectionable provisions of the American Treaty of last year, a circumstance which shows the inadvisability of commencing relations with an Oriental country on an imperfect basis, in the hope that fuller concessions may subsequently be obtained. My experience in China and Japan is that those Powers invariably insist on interpreting a Treaty in the letter, and not in the spirit, and this also appears to have been General Foote's experience in Corea. The insertion of the thin end of the wedge, as it is called, is a futile step in such relations, unless the Power who inserts the wedge is prepared to drive it home whenever further advance is required.
I should at the same time observe, however, that the Corean Ministers impressed upon me their desire that the Powers with whom they might conclude Treaties should be diplomatically represented in Corea, and they expressly stated that they trusted that Great Britain would not disappoint them in that hope. Their interest in such appointments is obvious in the importance which Corea would thereby acquire in the eyes of the world, and in the recognition of sovereignty which such appointments would convey. But whilst urging the appointment of a British Minister to Corea, the Corean Ministers also gave me to understand that it would not only be satisfactory, but even preferable, to their Government if the British Minister to China should be intrusted with that appointment. This suggestion has also its interested side, as, if it should be adopted by Her Majesty’s Government, the Corean Government would secure the compliment of a Minister of the same rank as the Representative accredited by Her Majesty to China.
The application, however, which this proposal bears to myself would naturally make me hesitate to do more than report it to your Lordship, were it not apparent that Her Majesty’s Minister to China would gain nothing in dignity or importance by being also accredited as Her Majesty’s Minister to Corea. But I am sensible that some advantage might accrue to our interests, not only in Corea, but also in its neighbourhood, from the first Diplomatic Representative in that country being one who is already well known to its Government, and who, from having conducted the recent negotiations, is fitted for the charge of putting a Treaty into operation, which in Oriental countries is often a more arduous task than negotiating the Treaty itself. The peculiarity of the relations between China and Corea, and the possible influence which the Treaty of the 26th ultimo may have upon Treaty questions in China and Japan, serve also as a further recommendation for the combined appointment, which, as I have already reported in my despatch No. 43 of the 7th instant, was moreover specially commended by the Grand Secretary Li Hung-chang. I do not participate in the reasons which his Excellency assigned for that appointment, namely, that “important questions should be referred to the sovereign country, and discussed by the Chinese Government and the British Representative,” as I presume that Her Majesty’s Government would only be willing that any interference on the part of China in such questions should be limited to the exercise of good offices, to be availed of or not at their option. Assuming, however, that His Excellency expresses the views of his Government in approving the combined appointment, there is an apparent value in the fact that it is expressly desired by the Government of China, as well as by that of Corea.
It remains for me to add that I am willing to undertake this additional duty if Her Majesty’s Government consider that I may be properly charged with it. I could visit Corea, when occasion should arise for my doing so, with greater case than I could visit many of the Chinese ports, but I am not unmindful that, in the earlier years of our intercourse with Corea, Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Representative in that country must be prepared to give attention to many matters of detail, such as those which relate to the formation and administration of the future foreign Settlements, and similar questions, until these shall have been guided into a regular course. But it would be necessary that the immediate supervision of these measures should be intrusted to a Consular officer of position and of local experience, as otherwise the general superintendence of a Minister Resident at Peking might prove inadequate, and also unduly burdensome to the latter. I therefore recommend as an essential arrangement the appointment of a Consul-General to Corea, and I have no hesitation in adding that it is most desirable in the public interest that this appointment should be conferred upon Mr. Aston.
I need not point out to your Lordship, who is familiar with the excellent service which that officer has rendered in connection with Corean matters during the last two years, his special qualifications for this post. His intimate knowledge of the state of the country and of its language, his friendly personal acquaintance with the Corean Ministers, his familiarity with all the antecedents of our intercourse with its Government which have led to the conclusion of the recent Treaty, and the prominent part which he took under my direction in the negotiation of that Treaty, enable me to say, without disparagement to any other officer in Her Majesty’s Consular Service, that he is the man best fitted for the appointment, and therefore the man who would best enable me to discharge with the desired degree of promptness and efficiency the duties of Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Representative in Corea.
I have also to recommend the appointment of a Consul at Pusan, or, in the words of Article IV of the Treaty, “at such other port as may be selected in its neighbourhood.” The reasons for providing for such a selection may be more appropriately considered in another despatch.
The affairs of the port of Chemulpho, which will probably prove the principal Treaty port of Corea, as also those of Yanghwachin, which is a town on the river within five miles of the capital, would come under the direction of the Consul-General; but as he would probably find it necessary to reside chiefly at the capital, it would be indispensable that he should be assisted by a Vice-Consul at Chemulpho. A similar appointment will doubtless also eventually become necessary at Wönsan, on the east coast, but the establishment of a Consular officer at that distant port does not possess the same immediate importance as that of Consular officers at Chemulpho and Pusan.
The most convenient course which I can suggest in respect to all these Consular appointments, with the exception of that of Consul-General, which I submit should be made by Her Majesty’s Government without any delay, is to permit me, in case I should be accredited as Her Majesty’s Minister to Corea, to make such acting appointments as I should find necessary, and to select the officers for those appointments from the Chinese Consular Staff. After a year's experience of the requirements of Her Majesty’s service in Corea, those appointments could be either changed or confirmed as your Lordship might see fit. If the provisions of the China and Japan Order in Council, 1865, should be extended to Corea, then under the 25th clause of that Order any officer appointed by me (in the capacity of Minister to Corea) to act temporarily as Consul or Vice-Consul at any Corean open port would be duly authorized to hold and form at such a port a Provincial Court, and could thus be vested at once with those magisterial and judicial powers which, as I have shown in my despatch No. 53 of this date, it is of the first importance that the British Consular officers in Corea should be able to exercise at the earliest stage of our Treaty relations with that country.
I trust I have not gone beyond the limits of my duty in submitting these recommendations to your Lordship’s consideration, but I confess that I feel some solicitude, if not responsibility, for the future effective working of the Treaty which I have been honoured with the charge of concluding; and I may add that I have also become sensible that although the present commercial position of Corea is comparatively insignificant, her geographical position, and the influence she may exercise when she enters, as I believe she shortly will, on a progressive course, will render this state, small as it is, a not unimportant factor in the development of our intercourse with the nations of the far East.

I have, &c.
(Signed) HARRY S. PARKES