Old News

Japan to the Great Bear, Chicago Tribune, January 6, 1904

New York Times December 23, 1987 - RUSSIA ABSORBING KOREA; Her Agents Control the Country, and Japan Is Getting Ready for Impending Hostilities. BRITAIN IN A WAITING GAME She Would Welcome Some Action by the United States -- German Press on the "Splendid Isolation of England."

SEATTLE -- The Russian Bear has laid a heavy arm on the fighting material and the army of little Korea. Not content with practically seizing the finance and customs systems of the country, M. Despeyer, the new representative of the "Land of Everlasting Turmoil," has caused the appointment of Russian subjects to the command of the army, and Russians are now in charge of the arsenal. Such is the import of Oriental advices received here to Dec. 6 by the imperial steamship Kamakura Maru, which arrived yesterday from Yokohama.
It appears that the news by cable has not given full particulars of the situation in Korea. The Seoul correspondent of The North China News says:
"We are on the eve of important changes in Korea that will not only affect the Korean nation, but will change the whole aspect of affairs in the far East. Unless one of the treaty powers interferes, Korea will speedily become Russian territory.

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A distinct departure in policy has been launched by the Czar's new Minister, M. Despeyer, who is a much abler and more aggressive diplomat than his predecessor, M. Waeber. Although he has been in the country scarcely more than a month, he has practically the whole country in his grasp. The army is entirely under Russian instructors, and is in charge of a Russian officer, and now Mr. Alexiff, a Russian has succeeded Mr. Brown, the English adviser of the Finance Department.
In the meantime the Japanese are not idle. The are spending large sums of money to secure the good will of the Korean officials and have begun to construct barracks at Fusan.
A dispatch from Shanghai, in The Hong-Kong Telegraph, states that a crisis is approaching in the Russian-Japanese imbroglio in Korea. Japan, it is stated, has ordered her largest battleship within hasty reach. Evidences are ample that, while professing a desire for peace, Japan is preparing with all energy and at great expense for a war that seems certain.