Note 38 — Chapter XI · THE COMPACT

The following facts with regard to the possession of the Imperial seal of Korea and its affixing to this important document, are given on the authority of Mr. D. W. Stevens. They are a complete refutation of the charges which have been made regarding this part of the entire transaction. It was the unavoidable delay in bringing the seal to the Palace which gave rise to these extraordinary stories. “What actually happened,” says Mr. Stevens, “was this. While the treaty was being copied, Mr. Pak went to the telephone and directed the clerk in charge of the seal at the Foreign Office to bring it to the Palace. After some delay he went again to the telephone and repeated the order. At the time the only two persons in the office were the clerk in charge of the seal and Mr. Numano, my Japanese assistant. Both were just then reading in the room where the clerk slept and where the seal was kept. The telephone bell rang, and the clerk who answered it informed Mr. Numano that Mr. Pak had ordered the seal to be brought to the Palace. He was putting on his street clothing preparatory to obeying the order when the Chief of the Diplomatic Bureau of the Foreign Office came into the room and asked the clerk where he was going. The clerk informed him, whereupon he went to the telephone and called up Mr. Pak. He implored the latter not to agree to the Treaty and, finally, receiving Mr. Pak’s peremptory order to cease interfering, threw himself down upon the clerk’s bed in great grief. After this, there was no further interruption from any quarter, and the seal was taken quietly to the Palace.”

It throws light upon the control and use of this seal to observe that, when in the summer of 1907 he was committed to the responsibility for the Commission to The Hague Conference by the fact that the commissioners were ready to prove their Imperial authorization by showing the Imperial seal, His Majesty did not admit this as evidence in proof of their claim. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that this use of his seal was also with his knowledge and permission. And, now, in connection with the various details inaugurated under the new Treaty which followed this violation of the Treaty of November, 1905, we are told that henceforth the Imperial seal will be kept in a safe especially prepared for it, and carefully protected from intrusion.