Koksai (Japanese National News Agency) at Tokyo.

It might be said that pro-Japanese policy is adopted as a matter of expediency on the part of some of the journals in Japan. The Japanese Government encourages and gives all kinds of aid, direct and indirect, to those newspapers that follow its policy, but insidiously suppresses foreign publications that do not serve its purpose. The pressure is so strong that no single journal can successfully resist it. The case of the late E. T. Bethell and the Korea Daily News may be cited as an example of the usual fate of an independent foreign newspaper in the Japanese Empire.

In the summer of 1904, Mr. Bethell, a young English journalist, settled in Seoul as temporary correspondent of a London daily paper, and started a modest bilingual journal, the Korea Daily News, printed partly in English and partly in Korean. He did not hesitate to record the facts as he saw them, regardless of their palatable nature to the Japanese. This brought him into direct conflict with the Japanese authorities. For a time it was doubtful whether he could withstand the pressure. "The Japanese were making his life as uncomfortable as they possibly could, and were doing everything to obstruct his work. His mails were constantly tampered with; his servants were threatened or ar

rested on various excuses, and his household was subjected to the closest espionage. He displayed surprising tenacity, and held on month after month without showing any sign of yielding."" He was approached with threat, cajolery, bribe and everything, in fact, the Japanese I could think of to win him over to their side. But the English journalist stood his ground like a stone wall.

Failing to conciliate the editor, the Japanese sought to cut the ground from under his feet by starting an opposition paper printed in English. An able Japanese journalist, Mr. Zumoto, became the editor. With the financial backing of the Japanese Government, this new journal, the Seoul Press, started out in fine shape, and was distributed almost for nothing. But the Korea Daily News held more than its own. Finally diplomacy was brought into play, and this young English journalist was ordered to leave the country and the Korea Daily News was suppressed by the order of the British Foreign Office."

2. CENSORSHIP OF POSTAL AND TELEGRAPHIC

COMMUNICATIONS

Prior to the opening of the World War there were three general news telegraph services op

10

McKenzie, "The Tragedy of Korea," p. 213.

"For full discussion, see McKenzie, "The Tragedy of Korea," chap. XIX.

erating to and from the Far East: Reuter (British), Ostasiatische Lloyd and its connections (German), and the Koksai (Japanese National News Agency). Of these the Reuter system was the most powerful and, perhaps, the least biased, although in times past, this agency has been accused on many occasions of fulfilling the function of keeping a certain point of view to the fore; and of obscuring, minimizing, or suppressing altogether the opposite or contrary points of view, according to the wishes of the British Government. The British Government grants special low telegraphic toll to this service, and being a British concern, it is altogether probable that the news gathered and distributed by this agency is, consciously or unconsciously, somewhat coloured in favour of the British, both as a matter of business expediency and of patriotism. But the Koksai is aided by the Japanese Government to such an extent that no other news-gathering agency can compete with it in Japan and in her territories. On February 1, 1914, an agreement to coöperate was made between the Koksai and Reuter, with the approval of the foreign offices of both the British. and Japanese Governments. It was agreed that Reuter service from Japan should be entirely supplied by the Koksai. This gives the semiofficial news-telegraphic service of Japan a double advantage: the Koksai can send out news

items direct to other countries, or it can have the Reuter perform the service, in case of any advantage to the Japanese. Being the sole news-gathering agency in the country, the Koksai can handle the news as it sees fit-minimize or magnify, suppress or create. When there is an item of news that cannot be sent out without betraying the hand of the government behind it, then the Koksai, instead of sending it directly to foreign countries, hands the item over to the Reuter service in the Far East which "sprinkles it through the press, English and vernacular, east of Suez, and carries it to London, where it will be picked up by American correspondents and services and passed along," as news coming from the English news-gathering agency."

No dispatch can go in or out of the Japanese Empire unless it has the sanction of the government. Any incoming news that does not agree with the policy of the government is suppressed. A month before the opening of hostilities between Japan and Russia the Japanese cut off communication between Port Arthur and the Russian Legation at Seoul, so that M. Pavloff, then Russian minister to Korea, was forced to use a special war-ship to communicate with Port Arthur. When Count Lamsdorf sent his tele

"From an editorial in China Press (Shanghai), October 13, 1914.

gram to Baron Rosen, the Russian minister to Japan, in February, 1904, it was delayed three days before delivery."

The control of the outgoing dispatches is even more complete than that of the incoming. When the Korean Queen was murdered by the Japanese Government assassins in 1895, Colonel Cockerill, the famous correspondent of the New York Herald, was in Seoul. At once he cabled the news to his paper, but his message was stopped and the money returned to him." At the time of the destruction of Korean independence, it was impossible for the Korean Government to lodge a formal protest with the powers, because of the complete control of communication by the Japanese.

The official supervision of the telegraphicnews service gives the Japanese Government an ample opportunity to create as well as to suppress news, either for home or foreign consumption. The part played by President Roosevelt at the Portsmouth Conference between Russia and Japan was really a service to Japan, as the Eastern Empire, although assuming the attitude of a victor, was at the end of her financial strain and was anxious for peace. The results of the conference were disappointing to the people who had been led by their press and govern

1 The Russian Circular Note, issued March 12, 1904. "McKenzie, "The Tragedy of Korea," p. 67.