Mr. Allen to Mr. Sherman.
Seoul, Korea, October 1, 1897.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that some time ago I learned that the Russian Government had applied for, and were about to obtain, a coaling station on Deer Island, in the harbor of Fusan.
[Page 476]The Japanese have a coaling station on the same island, as well as at Chemulpo and Gensan, and it seemed not unnatural that Russia should ask for and obtain the same advantage.
Later I learned that the secretary of the Russian legation had gone to Fusan, and, in conjunction with Russian naval officers, had selected 20 acres of land on the low-lying western end of this large and rocky island, at a point just opposite and nearest to the large and ancient Japanese settlement and right in the heart of the plot selected by the Korean Government, at the suggestion of my predecessors, Messrs. Heard and Sill, as well as other foreign representatives, for a site for the general foreign settlement of Fusan.
This is positively the only available site for this settlement, which is granted and provided for in the treaty between Great Britain and Korea, Article IV, section 1.
I send inclosed a rough sketch of Fusan Harbor, showing that from the mountainous condition of the mainland and most of the island this low-lying tract, near deep water and adjoining the Japanese town of some 10,000 inhabitants, which has existed there for over two hundred years, is the only suitable place for the general foreign settlement.
It was so generally assumed that the settlement would be laid out on this spot that in 1894, at the request of the American, Russian, and British representatives, the Korean Government dispatched its chief commissioner of customs to Fusan to lay out the limits of a settlement on this place.
This was done and boundary stones were erected, inclosing an area of about 50 acres for a settlement proper, with ample ground around it for future use. The sudden taking off of the Queen and the consequent disorder prevented a formal opening of this tract to settlement purposes.
This delay has been very annoying to this legation, for we have several families living at Fusan in houses they have erected on ground for which they could not get proper title deeds, and we want this matter settled for their sakes. Also, two American firms of importance have for some years been very anxious to open up business at Fusan, but could not do so until this settlement matter was arranged.
When therefore I learned that we were likely to lose altogether the only available site, through this proposal of the Russian Government, I went to the foreign office on the 14th of September (the day after assuming charge of the legation) and had a long talk with the minister for foreign affairs. I told him that I had nothing to say as to the right or propriety of his Government’s granting coaling stations to any power, but that I had learned with regret that he was thinking of granting to one country a large part of the site selected for a foreign settlement at Fusan for all the treaty powers; that a settlement at Fusan was granted foreigners by treaty, and that the Korean Government had been repeatedly urged to carry out the treaty stipulations in this particular instance; that Americans and American interests had been really injured by this long delay, and that I could not see the only available site for settlement purposes otherwise disposed of without speaking; that I thought he should first fulfill the treaty obligations and lay out this settlement, after which I would probably have nothing to say as to his disposal of the part of the large island still remaining.
He saw the point I was endeavoring to make, and assured me finally that he would do nothing in the matter without first consulting the foreign representatives, which was all I could ask.
I understand that the British, Japanese, and German representatives secured a similar assurance, though my action was entirely individual and had only to do with our own interests.
[Page 477]On the 22d of September the secretary of the Russian legation had a long interview with the vice-minister for foreign affairs, as a result of which he signed a “protocol” giving up all claim to this particular site and agreeing to take another.
I may add that a few days later this very excellent vice-minister was transferred to the obscure educational department and his former place given to a man said to be greatly his inferior in strength of character and general ability.
I have, etc.,