Durham Stevens - Adviser To The Korean Government

Adviser To The Korean Government

In November 1904, Stevens was appointed as adviser to the Korean Foreign Office. The Japanese government had urged the Korean government to appoint him to this position on the basis of the 1901 recommendation of Horace Allen. Stevens ignored several requests that a Korean consul be appointed in Hawaii; despite this, in 1905, Allen also commended Stevens to F.M. Swanzy, president of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association; Swanzy was interested in seeing Korean emigration to Hawaii restarted. The Japanese government expected that Stevens supported their efforts to block Korean emigration to Hawaii, but he was initially open to the idea. He had several meetings with Swanzy in Tokyo in mid-1905 on the subject, but in the end, Swanzy's efforts were unsuccessful. Later that year, he issued a statement that Japan would welcome legislation restricting the entry of Japanese immigrants into the United States, and that they were also in favor of stopping movement to Hawaii, "provided it can be done in a manner that would not be offensive to Japan or that would not affect her dignity"; he stated that the Japanese government hoped to induce potential emigrants to settle in Korea or northeast China instead. While officially under the employ of the Joseon government, he continued to receive tens of thousands of dollars in payments from the Japanese in order to "advance Japanese propaganda" among the American people, according to South Korea's Ministry of Patriots' and Veterans' Affairs.

In early 1906, Stevens made a bet with Kiuchi Jūshirō, a Japanese official resident in Korea, about the length of time before Japan would annex Korea. Kiuchi expected it would only take three years; Stevens' guess of five years would prove to be more nearly correct, as the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was signed in mid-1910. However, Stevens would not survive to see his prediction come true.