hat happened from
different groups, and in every case these stories tallied in the essential
facts. The day before we arrived, soldiers came to the village, some time
in the early afternoon, and ordered all the male Christians to gather in
the church. When they had so gathered, to a number estimated to be thirty
by our informers, the soldiers opened fire on them with rifles and then
proceeded into the church and finished them off with sword and bayonets.
After this they set fire to the church, but as the direction of the wind
and the central position of the church prevented the upper houses catching,
soldiers fired these houses individually, and after a time left.

"As we passed down the ruined village, returning to our rikishas, we came
on the last house of the village, which was standing intact, and entered in
conversation with the owner, a very old man. He attributed the safety of
his house to its being slightly removed, and to a vagary of the wind. He
was alive because he was not a Christian and had not been called into the
church. The details of his story of the occurrence tallied exactly with the
others, as to what had happened."

One example will serve to show what was going on now all over the country.
The following letter was written by a cultured American holding a
responsible position in Korea:

"Had the authorities handled this matter in a different way, this
letter would never have been written. We are not out here to mix
in politics, and so long as it remained a purely political
problem, we had no desire to say anything on one side or the
other. But the appeal of the Koreans has been met in such a way
that it has been taken out of the realm of mere politics and has
become a question of humanity. When it comes to weakness and
helplessness being pitted against inhumanity, there can be no
such thing as neutrality.

"I have seen personal friends of mine among the Koreans, educated
men, middle-aged men, who up to that time had no part in the
demonstrations, parts of whose bodies had been beaten to a pulp
under police orders.

"A few hundred yards from where I am writing, the beating goes
on, day after day. The victims are tied down on a frame and
beaten on the naked body with rods till they become unconscious.
Then cold water is poured on them until they revive, when the
process is repeated. It is sometimes repeated m