As I write these words the June number _World’s Work_ falls into my hands, and I read what Japanese writers have to say upon the Manchurian question. Adachi Kinnosuke points out that, despite the immense financial strain of the war with Russia, Japan has trebled her army and strengthened her navy to an equal extent during the few years that have elapsed since that struggle, which cost her the lives of 300,000 men. The reason which he assigns for these military preparations is the necessity of being able to face China. At the close of the Russo-Japanese war Baron Komura tried to induce the Chinese Government to open Manchuria to Japanese colonists, but as Manchuria is imperatively needed by China for her own surplus population, which are pouring into it daily by thousands in the early spring, it was only natural that she should resent the proposal, and refuse to grant the desired permission. Hence the present attitude of Japan. “If you do not allow our people to colonise Manchuria peacefully, there is only one thing for us to do: to enter it anyhow.” Yet the density of population in Japan at the present time is considerably less than that of Great Britain, of Belgium, of Holland, of Saxony, of Alsace Lorraine, of Hesse, of Baden; not to mention other non-European countries. The new Russo-Japanese Alliance is concerned mainly with their railways, and Japan insists on China relinquishing her project of a railway into Mongolia. Now it is an open secret that Russia is to have a railway direct from Irkutsk to Peking—the inference is obvious. The situation is an interesting one; but I have neither the knowledge nor the impertinence requisite for prophesying the course of events. My object will be attained if I can in any way succeed in describing the condition of affairs at the present moment. The latest step in advance is the annexation of Korea, the highroad into Manchuria. _August 26, 1910._ CONTENTS Preface vij PART I The Face of Manchuria I. Hulan 3 II. Moukden 11 III. Hsin Muntun 34 IV. Liao Yang 42 V. A Visit to the Thousand Peaks 51 VI. From Moukden to Korea 58 XIV. Ashiho 141 (For narrative purposes included in Part II.) PART II The Face of Korea VII. Pyöng Yang 67 VIII. Sunday at Pyöng Yang 74 IX. The History of Roman Catholicism in Korea 84 X. Seoul 93 XI. Fusan 107