an scarcely be accused by his bitterest critics of
unfriendliness to Japan. "Here were no criminal types, no baser elements of
the population, but men of the highest standing, long and intimately known
to the missionaries as Koreans of faith and purity of life, and conspicuous
for their good influence over the people. Two were Congregationalists, six
Methodists and eighty-nine Presbyterians. Of the Presbyterians, five were
pastors of churches, eight were elders, eight deacons, ten leaders of
village groups of Christians, forty-two baptized church members, and
thirteen catechumens.... It is about as difficult for those who know them
to believe that any such number of Christian ministers, elders and teachers
had committed crime as it would be for the people of New Jersey to believe
that the faculty, students and local clergy of Princeton were conspirators
and assassins."

Baron Yun Chi-ho, the most conspicuous of the prisoners, had formerly been
Vice Foreign Minister under the old Korean Government, and was reckoned by
all who knew him as one of the most progressive and sane men in the
country. He was a prominent Christian, wealthy, of high family, a keen
educationalist, vice-president of the Korean Y.M.C.A., had travelled
largely, spoke English fluently, and had won the confidence and good will
of every European or American in Korea with whom he came in contact. Yang
Ki-tak, formerly Mr. Bethell's newspaper associate, had on this account
been a marked man by the Japanese police. He had been previously arrested
under the Peace Preservation Act, sentenced to two years' imprisonment and
pardoned under an amnesty. He had also previously been examined twice in
connection with the charge against the assassin of Prince Ito, and twice on
account of the attack made on Yi, the traitor Premier, but had each time
been acquitted. "I am not very much concerned as to what happens to me
now," he said, "but I do protest against being punished on a charge of
which I am innocent."

The case for the prosecution was based on the confessions of the prisoners
themselves. According to these confessions, a body of Koreans, in
association with the New People's Society, headed by Baron Yun Chi-ho,
plotted to murder General Terauchi, and assembled at various railway
stations for that purpose, when the Governor-General was travelling
northwards, more particularly at Sun-chon, on December 28, 1910. They were
armed with ready revolvers, short swords o