We greatly regret to record the death of Prince Ito,
the distinguished Japanese statesman, who was murdered at Kharbin on Tuesday by a Korean. He had gone to Kharbin to conduct some negotiations with M. Kokovtsoff, the Russian Minister of Finance. He had just arrived at the railway station, and was talking with M. Kokovtsoff, when he was shot from behind. The murderer was seized, and stated that he had come to Kharbin expressly to kill Prince Ito, and thus avenge his own country. It is a deep irony that Ito should have been chosen as the type of Japanese domination in Korea, as his three years as Resident-General—he returned to Japan last July—were devoted to a policy of conciliation. There is no doubt that the military policy in Korea immediately after the Russo-Japanese War was narrow and hard, and unfortu- nately the worst class of Japanese commercial adventurers found Korea conveniently near. All this Prince Ito admitted and deplored, and he worked unsparingly in very difficult circumstances to remedy the evils.
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