The message emphasized especially the following particulars. Inasmuch as Japan had already fought one internal and two foreign wars, at a cost of millions of treasure and thousands of lives, on account of the political weakness and misrule of Korea, it could not possibly, with a wise regard either for its own interests or for those of the Korean people themselves, allow the repetition of similarly disastrous events. The two nations must learn to live together in amity and with their common interests guarded against invasion and injury from without. History had amply shown that this end could not be secured under existing conditions by Korea alone. The most sacred obligations, not only of self-interest, but also of a truly wise regard for the Emperor and his subjects, bound the Japanese Government to establish and maintain its protectorate over Korea. Further: no foreign nation, least of all my own, whose constitution and traditional practice forbade such a thing, was at all likely to intervene between Japan and Korea. Those counsellors who had led him to hope for such intervention were deceiving him; and the money which he had contributed to their schemes was not simply spent in vain; it was beguiled from him to his own hurt and to the great injury of his own people, who needed that every _yen_ of it should be judiciously expended upon developing the resources of the country and improving their own material condition. From these points of view, which had regard chiefly, or even solely, to the interests of the crown and the Korean nation, I regarded the Resident-General as Korea’s best friend; and also—if the Emperor would have it so—his own best friend. Of Marquis Ito’s sincere and intelligent interest in Korea, no one who knew him could have the slightest doubt; the Emperor must see that the Marquis, as Resident-General, was in a position of power. To act truthfully and sincerely in his relations with this powerful friend, and to co-operate with his endeavors at the improvement of the national condition, would, then, be his own best way to secure for his people “instruction in right ways,” “the opening of their minds to enlightenment and modern ideas,” and an effective “contribution to their progress.”