SIR: I have the honor to hand you confirmation of my telegram of to-day regarding the attack of last evening upon an electric car belonging to the (American) Seoul Electric Company.

The attack was made by soldiers without any real provocation. Some allowance must be made, however, for the condition of affairs. in this city. * * * The damage, moreover, was slight in this case as compared with previous ones. It would have been serious, however, had it not been for the presence of the American guard.

I send you inclosed the report made to me by Messrs. Collbran and Bostwick on the subject and a copy of my letter to the acting minister for foreign affairs.

I have, etc.,

HORACE N. ALLEN.

[Inclosure 1.]

Telegram of February 18, 1904.

Last night a company of Korean soldiers attacked electric carriage, property of American citizens, damaging it and injuring operator. American seamen quieted the disturbances.

[Inclosure 2.]

Messrs. Collbran and Bostwick to Mr. Allen.

SEOUL, KOREA, February 18, 1904.

DEAR SIR: Herewith we beg to hand you a copy of our assistant manager's report giving particulars of the incident that occurred last night, and which but for the presence of the American guard in Seoul might have had serious results, as the Pyeng Yang soldiers, to say the least, are not well controlled by . their officers.

No provocation was given by the crew of the car and not the slightest justification existed for the brutal assault made upon them.

The injured conductor is now in the American hospital, where his wounds have been dressed; but we are in hopes he can resume duty in a few days.

When the alarm reached the main building by means of one of our Korean employees, who could not quite make himself understood, the officer in charge turned out with a squad of men and hurried to the scene of the trouble; but fortunately the trouble was all over and their services were not needed.

Mr. Morris reports that the conductor was cut with an unattached bayonet. The damages to the car can be repaired for $25 or $30, and is too trifling a sum to file a claim for. We beg, however, to call your attention to the conduct of the Korean soldiers.

Yours, respectfuly,

COLLBRAN AND BOSTWICK.

[Subinclosure.]

Mr. Morris to Mr. Bostwick.

SEOUL, February 18, 1904. DEAR SIR: The following is a report of the trouble last night. Run No. 21, car No. 18, conductor Kim Yung Soon, motorman Chun Chang Un, turning in from South Gate at 8 p. m., arriving at Chong Mu switch at 8.16 p. m., found a cart in charge of soldiers loaded with bedding, guns, etc., stuck in the spring switch. The motorman asked them to hurry and get it out. In their hurry they broke the axle, which made them angry, and they took their revenge by catching the conductor and motorman and beating them. The motorman got away, but the conductor was cut badly in two places on the head. I took him to Doctor Ernsburger at East Gate. In one of the cuts the doctor put two stitches.

The car had three windows broken and the iron rod for hanging the headlight on, also the beading around the bottom of the windows was all torn off. The car would have been damaged much more if Hong Tuk Sung, office boy, and ticket agent Kim In Sung hadn't run it back to Chong No when the soldiers ran after the motorman. After beating the conductor they took him to their quarters at Pai O Gai, and the officer in charge let him go, telling him he was not to blame in any way. The weapon used in beating the conductor was a bayonet detached from a gun.

YOUR EXCELLENCY: I regret to have to inform your excellency that at about 8.30 p. m. yesterday a car of the Seoul Electric Company was attacked by Korean soldiers just west of the electric office building, the cause being that the soldiers seemed to be enraged because the motorman rang his bell for them to remove a cart from the track. The conductor of the car was injured by the soldiers and the car was damaged. Further injury was prevented by the approach of American marines from the Electric Company's office building. As it will be easy to ascertain the facts in this case, I trust to be soon informed regarding the steps your excellency's Government proposes to take to punish these soldiers and prevent a recurrence of these disagreeable incidents.

I take this, etc.,

HORACE N. ALLEN.

Mr. Hay to Mr. Allen.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, April 6, 1904.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 671 of February 18 last, reporting the damage done to a car belonging to the Seoul Electric Company by a body of Korean soldiers.

The Department approves your note to the Korean minister for foreign affairs asking that the guilty parties be punished.

I am, etc.,

JOHN HAY.

No. 738.]

Mr. Allen to Mr. Hay.

AMERICAN LEGATION, Seoul, Korea, May 10, 1904. 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. 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.,

HORACE N. ALLEN.

[Inclosure.]

Mr. Ye Ha Yong to Mr. Allen.

APRIL 23, 1904.

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 motorman 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.

Mr. Hayashi, the Japanese minister, during his call on yesterday afternoon handed me a translation of the new agreement with Korea, a copy of which I inclose."

*

I have, etc.,

*

HORACE N. ALLEN.

a Agreement printed under Japan, page 437.

LIBERIA.

IMMIGRATION OF AMERICAN NEGROES TO LIBERIA.

Mr. Lyon to Mr. Hay.

No. 11. Diplomatic series.]

AMERICAN LEGATION, Monrovia, September 23, 1903.

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that, in the month of February of the present year, a party of fifty-six colored persons, consisting of males, females, and children, left Erwin County, Ga., as emigrants for Monrovia, Liberia, under the leadership of one B. J. Scott.

Upon their arrival the Liberian Government did its best to assist them in overcoming the rigor of the climate and in supplying them with some food until the land which had been given them could produce something for their sustenance.

Since then, however, twenty of the number have died at Cheesemanburg, the place assigned them by the Government. For the lack of homes they were all put in a house of two rooms, where they died one after another, with the fever, from want of food and medicine.

Thirty-six of this number still remain in a sickly and destitute condition. Sixteen are still at Cheesemanburg. Twenty-two have returned to Monrovia. These are ragged, starving, and homeless. Five of these will return to the States by the first English steamer to Liverpool, on or about the 1st of October, 1903. Their transportation having been arranged for by friends in the United States.

There being no provision for relief in cases of this kind, we had to help them from our private purse. We soon, however, discovered that we could not give much charity to twenty-two persons for any length of time, for food is scarce and the prices are enormous.

I shall, in a separate dispatch, transmit some emigration documents and the result of an interview with His Excellency, the President, and with members of the cabinet.

I have, etc.,

Mr. Lyon to Mr. Loomis.

ERNEST LYON.

AMERICAN LEGATION, Monrovia, February 15, 1904.

SIR: In accordance with my dispatch No. 11, dated September 23, 1903, and addressed to the Hon. John Hay, I have the honor to report to you the result of an inquiry into the nature of the opinions held on the subject of immigration, by the most prominent citizens and the highest government officials of this Republic.