東亞日報
- The Opening of the Tenant Disputes
- The British Coal Dispute
- Protest over the Wanxian Incident
The Dong-A Ilbo's front page of 16 October 1926 led with an editorial on the tenant-farmer disputes that open with each autumn harvest. It began with an old Chinese poem about silk-wearers who never raise silkworms, argued that Korea was still an agricultural country whose majority were tenants, called solidarity the natural weapon of the weak against high-handed landlords, and urged tenants to agree on a fair, uniform standard for dividing rent and to act calmly and squarely. Shorter items asked whether the British coal dispute would flare up again after a district ballot of miners, and reported that the British Labour Party's annual conference had passed a resolution protesting the British naval bombardment of Wanxian in China. Fragments of Tokyo dispatches about a nationality tally, a customs conference and U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg also survive. This reading covers only parts of a badly damaged page.
This edition translates parts of three items from the front page. The OCR is badly garbled and neighbouring columns run into one another, so phrases from the tenant editorial also appear inside the Wanxian item and the coal item opens with unrelated Tokyo dispatches. One tile of the page (r2c0) cannot be read. The miners' ballot figures and the nationality tally are incomplete, and the dispatch place name in the Wanxian item is given as printed.
Translation
The Opening of the Tenant Disputes
【Saturday [?] October 16, Taishō 15 [?] matter approved) — Opening: as the autumn harvest arrives. I.
"Yesterday I went to the city; I came home with tears soaking my kerchief. Those clad from head to toe in fine silk are not the ones who raise the silkworms." So an ancient Chinese poet lamented the anguish of the society of his day. In modern society too, the fact that the producer is not necessarily the consumer, and the consumer not necessarily the producer, shows how deep and thoroughgoing the defects of the economic order are. Korea today is still a country whose great foundation is agriculture. Accordingly, the great majority of the nation are tenant farmers. The hardship of farm households, who toil over every single grain from spring ploughing and summer weeding through to the autumn harvest, is truly beyond anything a poet [?] could imagine. What, then, is to be done? Why do tenant farmers … the interests of tenant farmers' tenancy rights and … the people's training in solidarity. At any rate, from the standpoint of protecting their interests, it stands to natural reason that the weapon of the weak is solidarity … must check the high-handedness of the landlords, and from this point of view too it is a necessary policy … Once they have such awareness, sol[?] … we say, but in the end the problem is one they must solve themselves … unless they greatly [strengthen] their training in solidarity, it will not do … [?] … people with training in solidarity … especially at the time of cultivation, in the scorching heat … as long as there is training, the tenants should examine and consult thoroughly on the method and standard for dividing the rent … tenant farmers wrapped in fear even at harvest time … and once they have found a uniform standard and a fair method, put it into practice … we express our wholehearted sympathy … and at the same time, with a calm and composed attitude, fairly and squarely, in solid[arity] … we hope they will exercise still greater self-restraint and effort.
Zhang Zuolin to take central power himself
The British Coal Dispute
[?] … numbered [?] hundred and seventy-four, of whom 242 were Japanese, 44 Chinese, 27 American, 17 Portuguese, [?] [?] [?] 14 [?], 14 Filipino, 7 Korean and 9 others. (Tokyo dispatch)
Report of the customs delegate [?] … requested the convening of a conference of the four countries concerned with … America, but since diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States have not been formally restored, convening this conference was thought to be difficult. Recently, however, the U.S. State Department has at last decided to consider Japan's proposal, and Secretary of State Mr. Kellogg, to the Department of Commerce, in detail …
British coal dispute to break out again? Result of the miners' ballot. The district ballots of the British coal miners stood at 184 thousand [?] hundred [?] sixteen votes to forty-eight … within … -rabia … faction and ( Japan-America, Japan-America … those concerned, namely Japan and others … with a reduction plan … company … "-ra … -rica
Protest over the Wanxian Incident
… taking … action and obtaining a [settle]ment … [?] … the interests of the … right and, from the standpoint of the right, also … the point of checking … that it is a necessary policy … in the end, one will solve it oneself … at that time, even in the season of scorching heat, of fear …
PROTEST OVER THE WANXIAN INCIDENT — Resolution of the British Labour Party conference. The annual conference of the British Labour Party passed a resolution protesting the bombardment of Wanxian, China, by the British fleet, and earnestly [?] that the British government take steps as quickly as possible to have the governments holding power in China and the diplomatic corps convened once again. (Dispatched from Balket on the 13th)
… held consultations on the wish that the … standing be recognized, and the matter is to be referred to the bar association on this occasion. (Tokyo dispatch) … unexpectedly, Japan … though …
Context
Why tenancy rights were at stake in Korea's 1926 harvest
The editorial speaks of tenants' 'tenancy rights' and of the need to check the 'high-handedness of the landlords', and the colonial land system explains why those phrases carried weight. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the Japanese colonial regime refused to recognize cultivation rights that had customarily passed down within families and shortened tenancy terms to a single year, which threatened tenants' very livelihood. The same encyclopedia records that from 1923 onward, struggles against the confiscation of tenancies became the main form of dispute, because landlords used the threat of taking land away either to demand high rents or to crush tenants' campaigns for lower rents. Against that background, the editorial's picture of tenants 'wrapped in fear even at harvest time' and its focus on how rent is divided point to the moment when a tenant's crop and his hold on the land were both in question.
How the editorial's call for solidarity fits the tenant movement
The editorial calls solidarity 'the weapon of the weak' and asks tenants to train in it, to consult among themselves on a single fair standard for dividing rent, and then to act 'calmly' and 'fairly and squarely' with self-restraint. That advice matched the direction the organized tenant movement was taking. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture states that disputes in the latter half of the 1920s were led by tenant unions and by newly formed peasant unions, and that their aims were security of tenancy, reduced rents, exemption from public charges and miscellaneous burdens, and opposition to irrigation associations. It also notes that from 1926 tenant unions were being expanded and reorganized into peasant unions as owner-cultivators joined the movement. The editorial thus urges organized collective bargaining over rent while counselling restraint; that cautious stance is the newspaper's own position and should be distinguished from the wider movement's record.
Where the British miners' lockout stood in October 1926
The item headed 'British coal dispute to break out again?' reports a district ballot of British coal miners near the end of a long lockout. In May 1926 the Trades Union Congress had called a general strike in an unsuccessful attempt to force the government to prevent wage cuts and worse conditions for about 1.2 million locked-out miners. According to the TUC's archival history, the owners' final offer was a national settlement with an eight-hour day and a 13 per cent wage cut. After the general strike collapsed the miners fought on alone; by October, that history says, the feeling of a lost battle created the need for a return to work, the final decision was left to local ballots, and district leaders arranged terms with local employers. Durham's miners voted against the settlement to the end, and by late November those who were needed were back at work. The legible part of the Dong-A report gives one side as 184 thousand-odd votes and breaks off at 'forty-eight', so this reading cannot tie it to a particular ballot question.
What happened at Wanxian on the Upper Yangtze
The 'Wanxian incident' that the Labour conference protested grew out of China's warlord wars. In May 1926 Marshal Wu Peifu, threatened by Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition, appointed General Yang Sen governor of Sichuan. On 29 August a British steamer, the Wanliu, pulled away from Yang's troops and capsized boats carrying soldiers; accounts of the dead differ, with Wellington Koo putting them at sixty-four and another account at fifty-eight. Yang then seized the British steamers Wanhsien and Wantung. On 5 September the gunboats Cockchafer and Widgeon and the armed steamer Kiawo tried to recapture the ships and opened fire on Chinese troops, and a substantial local battle developed. In a letter to the British government Koo said nearly 1,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians had been killed or wounded, a figure from the Chinese side of the dispute. Yang was eventually pressed into releasing the two steamers, and it remains unclear whether Britain paid any compensation.
How the bombardment became a political issue in Britain
The Dong-A item reports that the British Labour Party's annual conference passed a resolution protesting the fleet's bombardment of Wanxian and urged the government to work quickly for a renewed gathering of China's governments and the diplomatic corps. The independent record shows why the shelling was contested. The Chinese government lodged a formal protest against the bombardment of a civilian port and condemned the unnecessary use of force. When the matter was raised in Parliament, Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain defended the Royal Navy, saying its action had been directed against military targets that were engaged in the fighting. The Labour resolution itself is known here only from the newspaper's dispatch, so its exact wording rests on the paper's report.
Original
小作爭議의開幕
【土曜 [?] 大正十五年十月十六日 [?] 物認可) 開幕秋收期 에 臨 하야 一 「昨日到城廓、 歸來淚滿巾、 遍身綺羅者、 不是養蠶人」 이라하는 것은 古代中國詩人 의그 當時社會 의 苦悶相 에 對 한 歎咏 한바이 다 現代社會 에잇서서도 生產者 가반듯히 消費者 가아니며 消費者 가반듯히 生產者 가아닌것은 如何 히 經濟組織 의 缺陷 이 深刻徹底 한것을 可知 할것이다 現下 의 朝鮮 은 아즉까지도 農業大本 의 國 이다 이러하야 民族多大數 는 小作農民 이다 春耕夏耨 이 부터 秋節 의 收穫期 에이르기까 지 粒粒辛苦 의 農家 의 艱難狀態 는 實 로 詩人 의 想像 [?] 바가아니며 如何 히할것인가 엇재로 小作農 이 小作農民 의 小作權 의 利益 과 民 의 團結的訓練 이다 엇재든지 利益擁護 하는 點 으로보아서 弱者 의 武器 는 團結 인것은 自然 한 理由地主 의 橫暴 를 牽制 하는 지아니하면 아니될것이며 또한이로보아서 必要 한 方針 인것 이러한 自覺 을가진 以上 에는 團 [?] 言 하는바이나 結局 은 自己結的訓練 을 大 게하지아니하면 問題 는 自己 가 解決 할것이다 아니될것이며 [?] 새는 團結的訓人 은 特 히 耕作 의 時 에는 炎暑 의 練 이잇는 以上 에는 相當 히 小作者 가잇고 收穫 의 期 라도 恐怖料 의 分配方法 과 標準 에 對 하야 檢査 에싸여잇는 小作農民 의 見討 하며 協議 하야 一致 한 標準 과 實行 하야 滿腔 의 同情 을 表 하 公平 한 方法 을 發見 한뒤에는어 同時 에 冷靜沈着 한 態度 로 되써지던지 當當正正 하게 團 욱 自重努力 하기를바라는바이 張作霖自身中央政權掌握
英炭坑爭議
[?] 者 는 [?] 百七十四名 이오 其中日本人二百四十二名、 中國人四十四名、 米人二十七名、 葡萄牙人十七名、 [?] [?] [?] 人十四名、 比律賓人十四名、 朝鮮人七名其他九名 이러더라 (東京電) 關稅代表報告 [?] 米利關係四個國 의 會議召集 을 要求 하 엿스나 露國 과 米國 과의 國交 는 正式 으로 回復 되지아니한 關係上此會議召集 은 困難 하게생각되는바 近者米國國務省 은 畢竟日本 의 提議 를 考慮 하기로되야 國務長官 『케록크』 氏 는 商務省 에 對 하야 詳英炭坑爭議又復勃發? 坑夫投票結果英吉利炭坑夫各地方投票 는 十八萬四千 [?] 百 [?] 十六票對四十八 유 內 라비아 한바 派 와 (日米日米關者即日本其他 로 低減案 하야 社 「라 리카
萬縣事件抗議
한 行動 을 取 하야 決 을 得 하는것 [?] 權 의 利益 과 權 으로보아서 또 를 牽制 하는 點必要 한 方針 인것을 結局 은 自己 의 解決 할것이다 其時 에는 炎暑 의 期 라도 恐怖 의 萬縣事件抗議英勞働黨總會決議英吉利勞働黨年次總會 는 中國萬縣英吉利艦隊 의 砲擊 에 對 하야 抗議 할 決議 를 可決 하고 英吉利政府 는 中國 에서 政權 을 保持 하는 政府 와 外交團 을 再次召集 케하려고될수 잇는대로 速 히 手段 을 講 하기를 切 [?] 하엿더라 (발케 ㅣ트十三日發) 面位 를 認定 하라는 希望 에 對 한 協議 를하엿는데 右 는 今回辯護士會 에 諮問 될터이더라 (東京電) 은 意外 에 도 日本 면하지만