There are some twenty-five thousand Japanese in Korea, and the Japanese settlement is the curse of every treaty port in Korea. It is at once the centre of business, and the scene of uproar, riot, and confusion. In the comparative nakedness of the women, in the noise and violence of the shopkeepers, in the litter of the streets, there is nothing to suggest the delicate culture of Japan. The modesty, cleanliness, and politeness, so characteristic of the Japanese, are conspicuously absent in their settlements in this country. Transformation has taken place with transmigration. The merchant has become a rowdy; the coolie is impudent, violent, and, in general, an outcast more prone to steal than to work. Master and man alike terrorise the Koreans, who go in fear of their lives whenever they have transactions with the Japanese. Before the Chino-Japanese war this spirit had not displayed itself to any great extent in the capital of the Hermit Kingdom. With the successful conclusion of that campaign, however, the Japanese became so aggressive in their treatment of the people that, had the choice of two evils been possible in view of these events, the Koreans would have preferred the Chinese and a state of dependence to the conditions which were then introduced. The universal admiration aroused by the conduct of the Japanese troops in the North-China campaign of 1900-1901 has added sensibly to the vanity and egoism of these Korean-Japanese. Convinced of their innate superiority, their violence towards the Koreans goes on unchecked. It threatens now to assume unparalleled dimensions. If the relations between the Powers are to continue upon a satisfactory footing in Korea, it will be necessary for the Japanese Government to redress those abuses which foreigners, Japanese, and Koreans alike have combined to denounce. [Illustration: H.M.S. _ASTREA_] CHAPTER XII The commercial prospects of Korea—Openings to trade—Requirements of markets—Lack of British enterprise The trade returns for 1900 exceeded every previous year. During the period covered by the Boxer disturbances, however, the Korean exports to China decreased, and the importation of foreign goods likewise fell off. The stimulus given to the cereal trade, by the interruption of the Manchurian export bean trade from Newchang, and by the demand for food-supplies for the troops in China, more than counterbalanced this temporary decline in direct native exports and direct foreign imports. Cotton goods, however, show an increase of £14,297 over the figures of previous years; but there is a specific falling off in imports of British manufacture and origin, and a specific advance in the more important lines of Japanese goods. I append a small table revealing the comparative prosperity of British and Japanese trade at this date: English, decrease in: Japanese, increase in: