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warrant to the man to answer the charge, and not to request him to call at the police office and then keep him in detention without allowing him to communicate with his friends. As I stated yesterday, the Ambassador has no instructions on the subject. He is only most anxious to avoid the possibility of the press and public making capital out of the incident, and being able to allege that, as a result of giving evidence in a British Court, a man who had been granted immunity has been arrested under circumstances which are not above suspicion.
On the 19th July I received your telegram No. 36 of the previous day, instructing me to express to the Minister for Foreign Affairs the hope that the Japanese Government would cause the accused to be publicly tried without delay, on the charge brought against him, and that in the meantime he might be released on bail and allowed to communicate with his friends. I at once wrote to Viscount Terauchi, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, a despatch, copy of which I have the honour to inclose, stating the instructions which I had received; the despatch, you will observe, is practically a paraphrase of your telegram. I at the same time wrote privately to Mr. Ishii, and requested him to let me know when Prince Ito arrived in Tôkiô, as I thought it would be necessary for me to see him personally on the subject. Mr. Ishii replied that my despatch would be at once shown to Count Katsura, the Premier, who would consult with Prince Ito on his arrival,
On the 21st instant I received from Mr. Cockburn his telegram No. 41 to you of the previous day, in which he stated that the Japanese authorities had officially informed him that Mr. Bethell had certain dealings with the Political Loan Fund, for the embezzlement of which his Corean editor had been arrested, and invited Mr. Cockburn to ascertain a number of facts relating to Mr. Bethell's connection with the fund subject to your approval, Mr. Cockburn proposed requesting that he might be made acquainted with the object for which this information was desired, and the evidence on which the inquiry was based. The Japanese authorities replied that the inquiry was based on evidence given by the prisoner while under examination by the police, and that its object was to ascertain whether Mr. Bethell had been guilty of any offence in connection with the fund. To this Mr. Cockburn requested your sanction to state that he was unable to give any assistance in proceedings which were diametrically opposed to English principles of the administration of justice.” On the 29th July Mr. Cockburn telegraphed that he had received your approval for this reply, and that he was sending it to the Japanese authorities that day.
In the meanwhile Prince Ito had arrived, and on the 29th I wrote asking for an interview, which was fixed for 10-30 this morning at Prince Ito's villa at Omori, some 10 miles from Tokiô. I had delayed asking for this interview, for I had hoped to receive despatches from Mr. Cockburn on the subject, but as his telegrams gave me sufficient information to go on I decided to wait no longer.
The Prince was looking very well and was most frank and cordial with me, as is his wont. He deeply regretted the incident and proceeded to tell me at considerable length the history of the case, which, briefly stated, is to the effect that the fund which the accused is supposed to have embezzled was subscribed for by Coreans of all classes to get rid of the Japanese administration, either by paying back the money which Japan had advanced to Corea, or by any other means. I pressed him on this point and the Prince admitted that the fund in every way was strongly anti-Japanese. About a year ago some of the Corean subscribers to the fund, seeing apparently the hopelessness of buying or turning Japan out, had come and asked whether the Residency would help them to get their money back! Those requests had been more insistent lately, and it had been ascertained that Bethell's Corean editor was a trustee of the fund, and Bethell himself was also one. The Prince said that the editor had not been decoyed from Mr. Bethell's office, but I did not take this denial seriously, neither did the Prince seem to expect that I should. In reply to my suggesting that if Mr. Cockburn had been approached in an official manner and the reasons given why the editor was wanted, Mr. Cockburn would assuredly have assisted the Executive to the best of his ability, Prince Ito said that might be, but Coreans are continually wanted for minor offences, and it would be impossible to make a request to the Consul every time. I did not agree, but I let the remark pass. Prince Ito then said :----
"But the question has within the last few days assumed a much more serious aspect"; and he produced for me a telegram which had been received from Viscount Sone, in which were set forth a series of some half-dozen, for the most part frivolous, questions which had been put to Mr. Cockburn, together with his reply to the effect
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that he could give no assistance in proceedings that were diametrically opposed to English principles of the administration of justice."
Prince Ito seemed somewhat annoyed at this reply, and said that the French and American Consuls, particularly the latter, had replied that, if approached officially by the Corean authorities, they would give all the assistance in their power, or words to that effect. I pointed out that the reply was not Mr. Cockburn's, but that of His Majesty's Government, and that, as I had as yet received no answer to my representations respecting the trial of the accused, and his admittal to bail, I thought the tenor of the reply was justifiable. The fact that no reply had been sent to my representations seemed to be a surprise to the Prince, and Mr. Ishii, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, who had evidently been in attendance, was sent for and took part in the discussion. Both the Prince and Mr. Ishii reiterated the fact that the accused had not been arrested in connection with Mr. Bethell's case. I said His Majesty's Government fully admitted this on the strength of Prince Ito's word, as they would see on reference to my unanswered despatch, but the general public would perhaps not be so ready to believe it; it seemed to me that the one man who ought to have been left in peace, in view of the promises that had been made by the Japanese authorities, was the principal witness in Mr. Bethell's trial-the accused-and that his arrest and its manner was, so far as Japanese interests in Corea were concerned, worse than a crime"; and when it was remembered that the arrest, and all the odium it had occasioned, was made on the demand of Coreans respecting a fund to which they had subscribed for the avowed purpose of upsetting the Japanese administration in Corea, then it seemed to me to be a piece of altruistic and monumental idiocy.
Mr. Ishii here remarked that this aspect of the case had not struck him before, and he certainly thought that the subscribers to this anti-Japanese fund might have been told to get their money back as best they could; from which it would seem that the Japanese Foreign Office and the Residency in Seoul do not always see matters from the same point of view.
Prince Ito then showed me a telegram in Japanese from Viscount Sone, Acting Resident in Corca, to the effect that Mr. Bethell had twice called at the Residency, the first time on the 27th, and had stated that he now wished to run his English paper on The official of the Residency, Mr. Komatsu, who received him, pro-Japanese lines. said that this fact would be communicated to the Resident; he however suggested that Mr. Bethell might first clear himself with regard to his connection with the Corean Political Fund, of which he was a trustee. Bethell replied that "his hands were perfectly clean" in this matter, and that he was perfectly ready to answer any questions with regard to what he had done with the moneys of the fund. He was asked whether he had communicated this to Mr. Cockburn, and he said he had not done so because he had not been asked.
I then reverted to the representations made by me in my despatch of the 19th, and it was agreed that the suggestions of His Majesty's Government should be carried out; that the trial should be a public one; that it should take place without delay; and that in the meanwhile the accused should be permitted to see and speak to his friends and relations, but not on the subject of the accusation against him; he could, however, have the services of a Corean lawyer (Prince Ito mentioned that he never let Japanese lawyers engage in Corean cases), With this Corean lawyer he could, of course, discuss his case.
With regard to bail, Prince Ito said that this was impossible, because the Corean law did not admit of bail. I pressed the Prince on this point, and said that I would telegraph this to my Government with his indorsement. After consultation with his Private Secretary, he said that he would have to make a special regulation to admit of the accused being admitted to bail, which he did not feel disposed to do, and he assured me that no Corean had ever been admitted to bail in either a civil or criminal case. had the honour to telegraph the result of my interview to you this afternoon, and to suggest that, as the Residency-General had accepted all our suggestions with the exception of that relating to bail, Mr. Cockburn might be instructed to assist the Residency in obtaining information regarding Mr. Bethell's connection with the anti-Japanese political fund, more especially as Mr. Bethell seemed to have no objection whatever in supplying this information himself.
Mr. Ishii promised me that an official answer should be sent to my representations this evening.
I have, &c. (Signed) CLAUDE M. MACDONALD.
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