KOREA'S CLAIMS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17688, 28 July 1919, Page 6

KOREA'S CLAIMS.

.DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. . REMARKABLE DOCUMENT. The Korean proclamation of independence, the full text of which, first promulgated in Seoul on March 1, is in many •ways a remarkable document. Signed by 33 prominent Koreans, representing many different classes and creeds, it places the claims of the country to independence on the broadest possible basis, and succeeds in formulating a demand which, tested by the criterion in accordance with which the world is now being rearranged in Paris, be pronounced irrefragable. In considering the Korean claim, however, or any similar claim, the fact must be remembered that, in these days, when the education of the West is open so' fully to the East, it is always possible for the most backward Eastern country to find within its borders men of education and discernment sufficient to draw up, in all sincerity, a document the ideals of which might presuppose a very nigh standard of national enlightenment if it were taken literally ay expressing a widespread national sentiment. The 33 educated Koreans have unquestionably succeeded in producing such a document. "A new era " they declare, "wakes before our eyes. The old world of force is gone, and the new world of righteousness and truth, is here " It is the day of the restoration of all things on the full tide of which we step forth without delay or fear. Wo desire a full measure of satisfaction in the way of liberty and the pursuit of happiness and an opportunity to develop what is in us ior the glory of our people." Now the inalienable right of any people to such rights and privileges is not, and cannot be, questioned. Tho only question there ]S , or can be, is how best they m°y he secured to people at aU periods in then- development. Tho signatories rf tne document under consideration assert that the only way this may be done is by the achievement of the "independ once of Korea and the liberty of the? Ko rean people" The Japanese, on tho other land would mamtain that the great ma=s annexed the country, some nine X* Korea was known as fcho Hermit that its culture and civilisation worn *£ V"** backward the F^ It is, of course, just this argument of try under force Fast °°JPin 1904, at the begSSL of ttons ; then her "decision" t o n^c a |wl whole GovetnmeM fe u, o hmJTtf .£ sis&sa s^tevSa ot X9U9 tho Kins of Korea retained only ■fctular uiftority, a year later ho ind disappeared altogether, and Korea an noxed absolutely to Japan, while Was cfeangod to Chosen. Mno