The return to Seoul of M. Pavlow on Jan. 15, 1900, marked the definite beginning of that train of events which led up to the declaration of war by the Japanese in 1904. The Russians had been induced, two years previously, to remove the heavy pressure which they had brought to bear upon the government, but it was only a change of method. They were now to adopt a policy of pure intrigue and by holding in power Koreans who were hostile to the Japanese to harrass and injure Japanese interests in every way possible. At this same time we see a clear indication of the trend of events in the return to Korea of An Kyŭng-su and Kwan Yŭng-jin, two of the best men that late years had developed in Korea. They had been charged with connection with the plot to compass the abdication of His Majesty, and had taken refuge in Japan. Now on the promise of the government that they should have a perfectly fair trial and on the guarantee of protection by the Japanese they returned boldly to Korea and presented themselves for trial. They were strong men and they had to be reckoned with. They strongly favored Japanese influence and the reforms that that influence was supposed to embody. In fact they were thoroughly in sympathy with the best motives of the defunct Independence Club. An Kyŭng-su returned on January fifteenth and was held in detention until May sixteenth when Kwan Yŭng-jin returned. They were to stand a fair trial, but on the night of the twenty-seventh of May they were both strangled secretly in the prison. No more dastardly crime ever stained the annals of this or any other government. Induced to return on the promise of a fair trial they were trapped and murdered. The reactionists looked upon this as a signal victory, and indeed it was such, for it indicated clearly that a man was not safe even when he had the guarantee of the Japanese authorities. Nor would it be difficult to indicate the source from which the government obtained the courage thus to flout the Japanese. As the summer came on, all interest in things Korean was held in suspension while the great uprising in China swelled to such monstrous proportions and the investment of Peking and the siege of the foreign legations there left the world no time to care for or think of other things. There were fears that the boxer movement would be contagious and that it would spread to Korea. Indeed it was reported in the middle of July that the infection had reached northern Korea; but fortunately this proved false.