Then began an increasingly bitter strife between the reactionary party, supported by Chinese soldiers, and the reform party, the leaders of which had been abroad (chiefly in Japan) and had returned determined to exert themselves to bring about reforms and to introduce the benefits of Western civilization in their native land. Japan, however, had given the frankest and most sincere assurances that such troops as it kept in Korea were only for the defence of its own Legation, and that it aimed to assist Korea in all its efforts at progress. “From Japan,” says Ensign Foulk, “came a number of qualified Japanese, who were held in readiness to begin teaching the use of machinery, the manufacture of paper, pottery, etc. Steps were also taken towards securing a director of agriculture, school teachers, and several other foreigners for service under the Korean Government. In regard to these the initiatory steps were taken in consultation with the progressive leaders, including the King, in which I was warmly invited to have a voice.”[18] Gradually, however, in part through fear, in part through jealousy, and perhaps also with some degree, in certain cases, of more intelligent and honorable reasons, certain leading members of the progressive party fell more and more under Chinese influences. How insolently the foreign soldiers from China during this period treated the Koreans may be learned from the following incident. In August, 1884, a Korean officer of high rank was openly seized by a party of Chinese soldiers and beaten by them in the street so severely that his life was despaired of; this was the outcome of a quarrel between the Chinese Commissioner and the Korean officer about the right of passage through a gateway of the Korean officer’s house, which was next to that of the Chinese officer. “On the contrary,” says Ensign Foulk, “the attitude of the Japanese in Seoul had always been such as to indicate an earnest desire to aid the party of progress, and to be on peaceable, friendly terms with the people. The conduct of Japanese citizens toward Koreans was commendable. As indicating great consideration on the part of the Japanese Government toward Korea, was the restraint placed upon Japanese merchants establishing themselves in Seoul, by the Japanese Minister, who evidently in doing so followed the spirit of the treaties, by which the capital was not to be thrown open to trade if the Chinese left.” [Illustration: The Tong-Kwan Tai-Kwol Palace.] When their factional strifes had the customary expression in revolution, arson, and bloodshed, the Koreans, aided by the Chinese soldiers, turned upon the Japanese. The subsequent occurrences and the way that the Japanese Government dealt with them are narrated in the words of one who was an eye-witness of, and an actor in, them:[19]