There are so many rumors circulating that one can hardly put confidence in the statement of any proposed reform in Korea until after the actual event, but we hope that there is more than the ordinary amount of truth in the report that Japanese police are to be stationed in each of the prefectures of Korea. If this means a court of appeal to which Koreans can bring cases of ill treatment with some hope of redress, a very important step in advance will have been taken. Whatever happens to the official ranks of Korea, we protest that the common people should be left unmolested and that their personal liberty and their property rights should not only not be impaired but, under the influence of the more enlightened power of Japan, they should be more carefully preserved than they ever have been under purely native control. American sympathy for Japan is based upon the belief that Japan stands for the “square deal,” and Americans believe the justice of Japan’s contention in this present war is based upon Russia’s departure from this principle. Whatever America’s good will may or may not mean to Japan, it will be lost if in the flush of victory the latter should take undue advantage of their power to despoil the Korean people of their territory either by seizure or by forced sale. Such acts have been going on all about us, but it is the hope of Japan’s well-wishers that the Japanese authorities will repudiate such actions and put themselves on record as being unalterably determined to give the common people of this country a “square deal.” * * * * * The appearance on June 3rd of the first number of the weekly _Seoul Press_ is a matter on which foreign residents in Seoul and every other portion of Korea should be congratulated. It is published by the firm known as the Seoul Press of which Mr. J. W. Hodge is the manager. No intimation is given in the first number as to the personnel of the management of this weekly but we are pleased to learn from the editorial column that “Our little paper will be run on a strictly honest and independent basis, and will be the tool of no particular party, but maintain itself on sound journalistic lines and principles.” The editor invites all who are of a literary turn of mind to make use of his columns and to endeavor to make the paper a success. We trust that our new contemporary will not be disappointed in his plan and that he will have the hearty support of the reading, the writing and the advertising portions of our foreign community.