Mr. Allen to Mr.
Hay.
American Legation,
Seoul,
Korea, May 10,
1904.
No. 738.]
Sir: In my No. 671, of February 18 last, I
informed you of an attack by soldiers upon one of the cars of the
electric company. I have your reply to this letter dated April 6, in
which you express the Department’s approval of my note to the Korean
minister for foreign affairs asking that the guilty parties be
punished.
I therefore now have the honor to hand you the final note on the subject
from the Korean foreign office dated April 23, handing me the results of
the investigation held by the military court. Each party seems to have
been found guilty and each to have received sufficient punishment, so
that the case might be considered settled by being balanced. The
incident is valuable in showing that some recognition was taken of the
action of the soldiers.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Ye Ha Yong
to Mr. Allen.
Your Excellency: I have the honor to inform
you that I have received a dispatch from the military court in
regard to the quarreling between a motorman and a soldier, stating
that when the court was trying them the soldier said it was night
when he drove a wagon with rifles loaded on it, there was much snow
heaped on the road at the front of Chong Myo (the Imperial Ancestors
Temple), where he could not walk freely, so he stood in the middle
of the railroad because there was no snow. Soon after that he saw an
electric car running down, so he called for it to stop, but the
motorman ran the car as if he did not hear, and struck the wagon and
injured the soldier and damaged his wagon and part of the rifles. At
the time there were a number of soldiers passing by, and they
actually beat the motorman.
The motorman, Kim Chang Un, said at the time the distance was not
exceeding half a kan (4 feet), so he could not stop, even though he
heard the soldier calling to stop, but when he stopped the car he
found the soldier injured and things damaged. And another motorman,
Kim Yong Sun, said at the time the barracks were being removed, so
there were many soldiers scattered over the road, that some of them
kicked the motorman with their feet and some slapped him with their
hands, in the dark night, therefore he could not know who actually
beat him. So he might have, been beaten by other passing soldiers.
In addition to that he said: “It is my fault that I could not stop
when I heard the calling to stop.”
On investigation, the soldier who stood in the center of the railroad
violated the rule of the company. He has been properly punished for
it; and the motor-man who could not stop the car when he heard the
calling to stop, and caused the man and things to be injured, must
also be in fault for carelessness.
I wish your excellency will consider the case and send word to the
electric company to tell the motorman to be more careful
hereafter.
Ye Ha Yong,
Minister for Foreign
Affairs.
