Hague Peace Conference

Koreans at the Hague Peace Conference: International Incident

In the book “International Incidents for Discussion in Conversation Classes”, in relation to this subject, L. Oppenheim wrote in 1909: During the second Hague Peace Conference the Emperor of Korea, although he had signed in 1904 a treaty according to which Japan exercised a protectorate over his country, dispatched an envoy and two secretaries to the Hague for the purpose of bringing some complaints before the Congress. One of the secretaries had been in Holland two years previously, and had left the country without paying his debts. When his creditors heard of his return, they asked an advocate whether they could sue him, or whether he was exempted from Dutch jurisdiction, since he now appeared as the secretary of the Korean envoy.