successful European tours, and was also extremely popular in England. Korbay wrote many pianoforte pieces and songs, but he is best known by his collections of Magyar folk-songs, which have attained a very wide popularity. He died in London, which for many years was his home, March 9 1913.
KÖRBER, ERNST, RITTER VON (1860-1919), Austrian statesman, was born at Trent on Nov. 6 1860, the son of an officer. He entered the State service in 1872, became Minister of Commerce (Nov. 30 iSgy-March 5 1898); Minister of the Interior (Oct. 2-Dec. 21 1899); Prime Minister (Jan. 18 1900- Dec. 31 1904 and Oct. 28-Dec. 20 1916); deputy curator of the Academy of Sciences (1904-19).
Korber represented the old Austrian tradition of faithful public service; his aim being to ward off by a comprehensive scheme of administrative reform the obvious crumbling of the old system of centralized Government. His Studies in administrative reform, published in 1904, involved an indictment of the admin- istration unheard of hitherto in Austrian official circles; he wanted to do away with the " notorious double-tracking " of the paral- lel administration of the central State and its units, to make a sharp distinction between their respective competence, and to establish a sort of clearing-house of the mixed jurisdictions, leaving intact the whole of the rights of both the State and the unit. This great work remained unachieved, because none of the separate nationalities was prepared to make the necessary sacrifice, even in return for compensation. He tried, with "passionless perseverance," to set Parliament functioning again, seeking to win support by granting large State credits for Alpine railways and Galician waterways; but his success was short-lived, and the delays in the execution of the canalization schemes, which were increasingly costly as time went on, even led to special obstruction on the part of the Poles. The con- cessions which he made to each national group led to corruption (the purchase of votes by concessions, parliamentary " milk- ing "). After the murder of Stiirgkh, Francis Joseph sum- moned him to the rescue of the State (Oct. 1916), but on the old Emperor's death the new monarch quickly got rid of his un- accommodating adviser. He died in Vienna, March 6 1919.
KOREA (CHOSEN). On Aug. 22 1910 Korea (see 15.908) became an integral part of the Japanese Empire, under its ancient name of Chosen, formerly in use for over five centuries and now officially restored: with this event, a new era dawned for what was formerly the " Hermit Kingdom." The ordered and systematic progress, already inaugurated by Japan in 1906, ad- vanced steadily, though attacks were still made by some foreign critics on her suppression of Korean nationalism.
The peninsula of Chosen, with its outlying islands, has an area of 85,229 sq. m. of which 82,926 sq. m. form the mainland. It is thus about as large as the mainland of Japan or about two-thirds of the size of the British Isles. The pop. in 1920 was 17,284,207, including about 337,000 Japanese and about 23,000 foreigners. The density is only about 208 inhabitants per sq. m. compared with 376 in Japan and about 374 in Great Britain. The. climate is dry and bracing, without intense variations of cold and heat, and, in contrast to Japan, there is an absence of hurricanes and practically no visitation of earthquakes. The country is mountainous, especially in the N., but there are extensive plains, well-watered with good rivers, on the S. and W. where are situated the excellent harbours of Fusan, Mokpo, Chemulpo and Chinnampo. The mineral wealth of the country is concentrated in the N., while agriculture is the pre- dominant characteristic of the level and fertile south-west. Chosen's geographical position affords her easy access to the markets of China, Manchuria and Siberia, and a railway line now connects her with northern Asia and thus to the heart of Europe.
Administration. Subsequently to the annexation, the func- tions of the Japanese residency-general and of the Korean Gov- ernment were merged in those of a governor-general, the first to be appointed being Gen. Terauchi, with Mr. I. Yamagata, son of Prince Yamagata, as administrative superintendent. In Oct. 1916 Gen. Terauchi vacated his post to become Premier of Japan and was succeeded by Gen. Count Hasegawa, Mr. Yamagata continuing in office. An important reform effected in this period was the unification of the police and the gendarmerie services, by which a better control of the outlying districts was obtained, where hitherto the peace and security of the inhabitants had
been frequently disturbed by bands of robbers and marauders. The serenity of Chosen, which had remained unclouded since the annexation, was broken up somewhat abruptly by widespread disturbances which took place in March 1919. Owing to a spirit of unrest, partly due to the World War, partly due to agitators and, no doubt, partly engendered by the cautious slowness of the Japanese in introducing administrative reforms suitable to the measure of progress already achieved, the Koreans were sub- merged in a wave of desire to achieve at one step that measure of " self-determination " which President Wilson's utterances ap- peared to them to justify. The disturbances, however, were quickly subdued and the Japanese Government hastened for- ward reform measures which had already been contemplated. The heads of the administration resigned and Baron Saito was appointed governor-general and Dr. R. Midzuno administrative superintendent. The reforms introduced were: (i) the exten- sion to civil officials of eligibility to the post of governor-general, hitherto only open to a military officer of the rank of general; (2) the governor-general, formerly only directly responsible to the Throne, to be amenable to the Prime Minister of Japan; (3) the governor-general to be relieved, even when a military officer, of the right to the military command, which should be exercised only by the commander of the army; (4) the substitution of a police force for the mixed system of gendarmerie and police.
The premier, Mr. Kara, also issued a statement that the Government were desirous of further eliminating as time went on, all differences between Japan proper and Chosen in matters of education, industry and the civil service. A system of provincial and municipal administration, similar to that in Japan, would also gradually be evolved.
Peace was thus established and the Koreans again settled down, although various agitators and malcontents who had fled either to Shanghai, or to Manchuria, from time to time made abortive attempts again to stir up the feelings of discontent which had been so successfully allayed. Episodes which occurred in the autumn of 1920 in the Chientao district, when a Japanese con- sulate was burned, and attacks were made on peaceful Japanese and other civilians, were subsequently found to have been en- gineered by Korean agitators.
Finance. After the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5, Japan turned her attention more actively 'to the reform of Chosen fiscal affairs, hitherto sadly neglected, as the budgetary laws enacted in 1895 were not adhered to in practice. Detailed regulations regarding revenue and expenditure were promulgated in June 1906, the system of public tenders was introduced and a Bureau of Audit was established. The Seoul branch of a Japanese joint-stock bank was authorized to act as the Central Treasury of the Chosen Government and the post-offices were also entrusted with Treasury business. In Sept. 1906 regulations with regard to the collection of taxes were issued and assessors appointed, all being made directly responsible to the Minister of Finance.
The coinage system of Chosen was a matter urgently in need of reform, as not only was there no standard money and an excess of nickel coins, but a great deal of spurious foreign coin was also in circulation. A law of 1901, not then put into force, by which the coinage system was to be made analogous to that of Japan, was therefore revived and became operative in June 1905, and it was further provided that the standard money of Japan, or bank-notes, should become the standard money of Chosen. Thus Chosen became a gold country and in a few years' time the country reaped an enormous benefit, both at home and abroad.
The ordinary revenue rose from 44,764,559 yen in 1916-7 to 69,347,820 yen in 1920-1 ; while the extraordinary revenue rose from 23,437,548 yen in 1916-7 to 54,462,123 yen in 1920-1. The total expenditure which in 1916-7 was 57,562,710 yen, was in 1920-1 1 13.328,334 yen.
Foreign Trade. The external trade of Chosen, rapidly increased during the decade 1910-20, is chiefly owing to the development of her agriculture and industry. Contributing factors have been the improvements effected in transport, both by sea and land, with a consequent lowering of freights, the revisicnof the customs tariff, and also to the greater demand created by the World War.
Exports, valued at 15,369,009 yen in 1912 (in addition to exports to Japan itself of 5,616,608 yen), increased to 199,848,854 yen in 1919 (with 10,816,927 yen to Japan itself); and imports, 40,756,013 yen in 1912 (plus 26,359,434 from Japan), rose to 184,917,978 yen in
1919 (plus 95,868,640 yen from Japan). During the i
same period the ratio of the total foreign trade with that of trade with Japan and other countries may be seen from the figures given in the following table.
