Note 5 — Chapter XLII · THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED.

A noble of high rank presented to the council of ministers a memorial, setting forth the dangers that then menaced Chō-sen, and urging that extraordinary means be put forth to meet the emergencies. He proposed that the national policy of armed neutrality should be preserved, that the conquered emperor of China should not enter Chō-sen, that the frontier should be strengthened against a possible invasion of the border-ruffians inhabiting the neutral strip. Taking advantage of the situation, these men, banding together with Chinese adventurers and Corean refugees, might make a descent in force into the kingdom. Finally, the supreme danger that filled all minds was the threatened invasion of the French. He recommended that the castle of Tong-nai, near Fusan, and the western strongholds of Nam-an, Pu-pion, and In-chiŭn (the port opened in 1882), should be strongly garrisoned and strengthened; and that a new citadel be built on the island of Kang-wa, to command the river and the entrance to the capital. (See map, page 190.) ↑