Turning now to the diplomacy at the Korean capital, we observe that its first aim seems to have been to repeat the old policy of replacing Mr. MacLeavy Brown, a British subject, as the Director-General of Korean Customs, with M. Kir Alexieff, and also to put Korea under financial obligation to Russia by means of a loan. In March, 1901, Mr. Brown was suddenly ordered by the Korean Government, which acted obviously at the instance of the Russian Representative, to vacate his residence and surrender his post. The British _Chargé_, Mr. Gubbins, had barely succeeded in prevailing upon the Korean Government to revoke the latter half of the order, when in May another order was issued calling for the delivery, not only of Mr. Brown’s official residence, but also of the customs office building—an order equivalent to a dismissal from office. From this predicament Mr. Brown was narrowly rescued by an earnest representation made on May 5 by Mr. Hayashi to the Korean Emperor.[526] By this time, the affair had been complicated by an agreement of a 5,000,000 _yen_ loan, which had been signed on April 19, between the Korean Government and the French agent, M. Cazalis, of the Yunnan Syndicate.[527] It is hardly necessary to give the detail of this abortive agreement, for it was never ratified by the Emperor, but fell through from the inability of the Syndicate to fulfill its terms.[528] It is only necessary to say that if the loan had materialized, a large control over the coinage, mining, and general finances of Korea would have passed into the hands of the French subjects and perhaps also of the Russo-Chinese Bank. This Bank, in the latter half of 1902, seems to have offered a fresh loan through its agents at Seul, Gunzburg and Company, under the condition that the firm should obtain a permanent monopoly of ginseng, which had then been in the hands of the Japanese, and also the right of working certain mines.[529] This proposition also miscarried, evidently owing to the protest from the Japanese Minister, who discovered in it a violation of the first Article of the Yamagata-Lobanoff Protocol of June 9, 1896. A Belgian loan, which was rumored early in 1903, seems to have shared the same fate with all the loans previously suggested.[530] In this connection, it should be noted, in justice to all the parties concerned, that toward the latter half of 1900 there was a movement in Japan to suggest a loan to the Korean Government, but that the Premier, Marquis Yamagata, declined to countenance the scheme.[531] He probably did not wish his nation to become a party to a violation of an agreement it made with Russia in 1896.