Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/63

 Ito proceeds to Tientsin and signs yet another convention with Li Hung Chang.

In this instrument China and Japan mutually undertake to evacuate Korea: they declare that they "shall respectively accomplish the withdrawal of the whole number of each of their troops, in order to avoid effectively any complications between the two countries: the Chinese troops shall embark from Asan; and the Japanese from the port of Chemulpo." They also undertake not to send troops without giving prior notice. But regarding the essential issue, the definition of the true status of Korea, neither is yet ready to commit itself, although in an additional clause they "mutually agree to invite the King of Korea to instruct and drill a sufficient armed force, that she may herself assure her public security, and to invite him to engage into his service an officer or officers from amongst those of a third Power who shall be entrusted with the instruction of the said force."

Following this, American officers arrive and drill Korean troops for a brief space; and England, after a few more months, evacuates Port Hamilton, which she had occupied because Russia seemed about to move south to the "warm water". But the real issue is Yuan Shih-kai