MASTERS IN KOREA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2722, 17 March 1916, Page 5

MASTERS IN KOREA

JAPANESE INFLUENCE IN A I BACKWARD EMPIRE j RETURNED NEW ZEALANDER'S 1 IMPRESSIONS j Mr. E. K. Lomas, M.A., formerly -J a lecturer in at the Wellington ] Teachers' Training College, and who re- j sumes that position to-day, arrived back ' m Wellington from the East by the '] Manuka on Wednesday evening. Two ■! years ago Air. Lomas was afforded an ) opportunity of taking up missionary i educational work (by the Victorian j Presbyterian Church) in Korea, and ; proceeded to Korea, whore it was pro- i pesed to establish under his charge a ■ secondary' school at Masampo, in the south-eastern province of Korea, as a | step higher for those students who had passed through the primary schools. Perhaps it should be understood initially that for the purpose of oduoation sis missions had combined in Korea. These were the missions established by • we North and South _ American, the i Canadian and Australian Presbyterian j Missions, and the North and" South i American Methodist Missions—six, in j onA ''•'1 1650 controlled no fewer than < 300 primary schools, most of which ; f*®"® doing very well, and on the re- | 6ults achieved it was felt that a sec- I ondary school was needed. It was i never established. The reason primar- I ily was that the flow of funds was checked by the war," but the real rea- ; son was the attitude of the Japanese '.'i Government. , .1 "You will remember," said Mr.- Lo- { mas, "that the Japanese at ihe close i of the Russo-Japanese war, promised 1 Korea her independence by treaty, and i said that officially she would appoint > residents-general. simply to look after j fcho interests of Japanese 'residents. > To-day, the entire country is control!- ; ed by Japanese, and Korea is neither j more nor less than a part of the Jap- 'i anese Empire.' Japanese officials-occupy j all the higher positions; the Judges are j Japanese, so are the police. The Ko- j reans are on impractical people. They ! have a King, and a Queen,, and the latter wields a deal of power. She was j "fiot rid of' by the Japanese, and as j tho Korean Government was corrupt, j .Tapan found no difficulty in usurping l full control of the country, and get-, ting everyone under its thumb. , . No Bible Study Allowed. L \:.-!!Th'e_;.'' JapVrieseZG&vei'jM&'ti passed; j regulations and enforced them last year : —forbidding all Bible study and "rei'-'l ligious exercises 111, all private schools : (as distinct-from the public schools es-tablished'.by-the Japanese, and which are supposed, like other public schools, to be secular). As nil tho private . schools in Korea are those established j by tho missions, chiefly the Presbyter- i ian, Methodist, and "Anglican, it meant ] a death-blow to the work of Christian-, '< ising the Koreans. While the.regula- i tions came into force in Maroh last 3 the old-estalilished schools havo given ten years' grace to comply with them,, but -in the' .case of new j schools—and- 'there - are many— j they wore to- take effect at once. { Under such circumstances it was use- j less to think about Erecting , a second-. : j ary school. The Japanese are also ] keeping a - sharp eye on all preachers j and -Clnirch work generally. The ex-, planation they give of their attitude ] is that all eduoation' must-be kept com* i pletely separated ' from 'religion." - i Japanese religion, one supposes, must ■■ enter int-o the .. background of the ques- i tion, and Mr. Lomas explains that for ; thirty years past 1 in Japan there has | been a distinct reversion to Shiutpism, the most : apparent form of which is ; Emperor-worship. The Japanese would ; .still , like it to bo maintained in Korea i that the present Emperor can trace ! his ancestry back to the first Emperor, j who doscended from heaven, ana was j the son of a goddess, and that there- : fere the Emperor Is the god-head of ; the nation-.- -The educated Japanese i feels this to be an unreal and unsub-.i stantial base of religion; and there is j an element in Japan that shows it by ; distinct leaning towards rationalism, i and a cultivation of modern philosophy j as set out by Haeckel,' Tolstoi, and j others. But the movement has made ■; missionary, education work very diffi- j cult, and the Korean people are dis- ; tressed, but quite helpless, at the tura j things have taken. j

Mr. Lomas saj's that the Korean es J / literary student is as good, if; not i superior, to the Japanese, and in the i study of languages is quite superior, j The Korean will pick .up the 'English ! language quicker, and speak it; with a ' bettor ; aoceiit than the Japanese, but j he has not' the practical mind and i initiative capacity of his brown brother, ]

A Valuable Country,

Japaneso influence is developing the country. Branch railroads are being built gradually according- to a wellplanned system, to connect up with trunk line'which tra- ; verses the country, and terminates at j Tusan, but the development may even- j tvally favour the Japanese rather than. .1 the Koreans, wlio are already _ feeling j tlie increase in the taxation imposed. 1 on them. To sliow this the taxation i revenue in Korea, for 1915 exceeded '! tliose for the.preoeding year by 5,000,000 j yen. The country is a valuable pro- j ducer. The best rice is grown'in the i southern provinces of Korea, and good j barley, oats, and millet freely cultivated ; iti tlie north. The climate is one of ex- j tremes. During the winter of 1914 the .! thermometer for a _ whole _ fortnight j ranged between freezing point and 14 ! degrees. In Masampo.and Fusan, the I July and August (the rainy season), the, average temperature was about 90 j degrees. In Masamno and Fusan, the -j Japanese Fleet, 1 whilst Fusan harbour j The farmer is not unlike Wellington, ■ and could harbour the whole of the 1 Japanese Fleet, whilst Fusan harbour j has been made a very serviceable one, 'j its it is the terminus of the. trunk railway (in Korea) of the Siberian line, j and the popular route for tourists i bound for Jartan. .. . I