Note 107 — Chapter XVIII · JULY, 1907, AND AFTERWARD

It should be understood that this office is the most important and influential of all the Korean offices, so far as private transactions with the Emperor are concerned. Now Pak Yong-hio, after a life of idleness and debauchery in Japan, whither he had fled some years before, and where he had been supported by the kindness of Japanese and Korean friends, had recently been pardoned and allowed to return to Korea. In petitioning for permission to return, Pak dwelt in pathetic terms on his “home-sickness,” and expressly promised in the future to refrain from political intrigue. But he had scarcely set foot on the soil of Korea before he began a most dishonest and disgraceful course of political intrigue. A little more than twenty-four hours after his pseudo-appointment as Minister of the Imperial Household, the Cabinet Ministers ordered his arrest, and he was subsequently condemned to be punished with eighty lashes and banished for life to the Island of Quelpart. Such are the vicissitudes of Korean political careers when most free from foreign influence!