Page:Korea (1904).djvu/141

Rh obvious, therefore, that the attack was directed more against Mr. McLeavy Brown, by a posse of Court officials, than against his house. Nevertheless, it has always been apparent, since the Emperor came over to the shelter of the Legations, that there could be no sufficient accommodation for him in the Foreign quarter without encroaching on the grounds of the Legations. The Legations have a delightful situation on the only real eminence in the central part of Seoul, and the Emperor, now that he has come, must either be content with a malarial situation, at the feet, as it were, of the foreigners, or absorb the Legation grounds and send their tenants elsewhere. Already he has displaced the German Minister. Sooner or later the British, and perhaps the American, will go too; and the Palace will then cover the whole hill, save the site of the Russian Legation, whose flag will still wave a little above the Imperial standard of Korea.

No sooner had a settlement been attained upon the question at issue between the Court and the Chief Commissioner of the Customs, than there came the announcement that a loan of five million yen had been arranged between the Government and the Yunnan Syndicate, upon the security of the revenue of the Customs. This at once compromised the authority of the Chief Commissioner, who, by virtue of his office, exercises absolute control over the revenues. It should be understood that the loan had nothing whatever to do with the question of Mr. McLeavy Brown's house. The original proposals were first mooted a year before the more recent trouble. The Yunnan Syndicate, a French company registered in London, is supported almost wholly by French capital. It is generally understood that the main object of the loan was to obtain a