flags, with the
red and blue germ on the white ground, and were being widely waved.
"Mansei!" Not only Seoul but the whole country had in a few minutes broken
out in open demonstration. A new kind of revolt had begun.

Pastor Kil, arriving late, hurried to the police station to take his place
with his comrades.

The Declaration of Independence is a document impossible to summarize, if
one is to do full justice to it. It is written in the lofty tone of the
ancient prophets. It was something more than the aspiration of the Korean
people. It was the cry of the New Asia, struggling to find its way out of
oppression and mediaeval militarism into the promised land of liberty and
peace.

THE PROCLAMATION OF KOREAN INDEPENDENCE

"We herewith proclaim the independence of Korea and the liberty
of the Korean people. We tell it to the world in witness of the
equality of all nations and we pass it on to our posterity as
their inherent right.

"We make this proclamation, having back of us 5,000 years of
history, and 20,000,000 of a united loyal people. We take this
step to insure to our children for all time to come, personal
liberty in accord with the awakening consciousness of this new
era. This is the clear leading of God, the moving principle of
the present age, the whole human race's just claim. It is
something that cannot be stamped out, or stifled, or gagged, or
suppressed by any means.

"Victims of an older age, when brute force and the spirit of
plunder ruled, we have come after these long thousands of years
to experience the agony of ten years of foreign oppression, with
every loss to the right to live, every restriction of the freedom
of thought, every damage done to the dignity of life, every
opportunity lost for a share in the intelligent advance of the
age in which we live.

"Assuredly, if the defects of the past are to be rectified, if
the agony of the present is to be unloosed, if the future
oppression is to be avoided, if thought is to be set free, if
right of action is to be given a place, if we are to attain to
any way of progress, if we are to deliver our children from the
painful, shameful heritage, if we are to leave blessing and
happiness intact for those who succeed us, the first of all
necessary things is the clear-cut independence of our people.