A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 32. Kunt Ernő emlékére. (1994)

TANULMÁNYOK - FENDLER Károly: A magyar-koreai kapcsolatok száz éve (1892-1992) (magyar és angol nyelven)

Further down, Section I of the Treaty pointed out, "There shall be perpetual Peace and Friendship between His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, Apostolic king of Hungary and His Majesty the king of Corea, and between Their respective subjects. Austrian and Hungarian subjects in Corea and Corean subjects in AustriaHungary shall enjoy full security and protection for their persons and property." We can say about the Treaty as such that it was signed by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with the Kingdom of Korea recognized as an autonomous and independent state (it was also emphasized in a letter King Kojong sent to our Ambassador, a copy of which I attach here). The Treaty focuses on the promotion of trade and consular/personal relations, although the Monarchy was undeniably at an advantage over Korea in this regard. Besides, Article 2 in Section IX of the Treaty in quite remarkable and its spirit is valid even today, stating, "Subjects of one of the High Contracting Parties who may proceed to the country of the other to study its language, literature, laws, arts or industries, or for the purpose of scientific research, shall be afforded every reasonable facility for doing do." Unfortunately, no representation was set up subsequently in Seoul and the official relations were maintained between the respective Embassies of the AustroHungarian Monarchy and Korea in Tokyo all along. After the turn of the century, several Hungarian travellers went to Korea and despite all their inaccuracies and errors, they made the first attempts to give comprehensive descriptions about Korea's people, history and culture in their reports. As I mentioned already, those publications are rendered especially valuable by the photograhps, ethnographic and other illustrations. The daily press generally reported on Korea only in the context of the war between China and Japan. In the very first years of the 20th century, in 1902-1903, Count Péter Vay, Bishop went on a journey visiting Petrogard, Siberia and Mongolia, later Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. The Bishop, descending from one of the eldest Hungarian airstocratic families, spent several months in Seoul and Korea from November 1902. On his travels, he published a 500-page book with abundant illustrations including his own paintings and drawings, "Kelet császárai és császárságai" (Budapest, 1906) (Emperors and Empires of the Orient). In his work, he reported about his stay and experience in Korea on about 140 pages. With proper erudition, he described the country's history, people, customs, Seoul and its surroundings as well as Chemulp'o, Masan and Pusan, etc. and gave an account of his meetings with King Kojong and the Heir Apparent, and of the country's internal and foreign political situation. The outhor's sharp wit and excellent political and factual knowledge made his work autstanding among contemporary reports and travel books for Korea. He saw the fight of great powers for Korea and the motives of the events with sharp eyes and witnessed several important political developments, etc. We can learn a great deal from the way he evaluated the situation even today, "Seoul is split into two parties. One of them is a staunch opponent of Russia... The other one is the Russian party that mightily defends its interests against Japan's supporters. Because one serves the Russian, the other one serves the Nipponese. The latter is a stalwart of Japan-but there is hardly a party yet that would fight for its own country, for independence and defend its freedom. There are very few Koreans who are enthusiastic about Korea." (p. 323) We cannot preclude that Count Peter Vay's position and his sympathy may also have stemmed from Hungary's subordinated role in the Monarchy. The first reports and articles of the last century and later the travel books and finally the treaty of friendship and commerce made Korea gradually known in Hun160