The note, translation of which I have the honour to enclose herewith, is the reply which the Corean minister of foreign affairs has addressed to the last communication of the french representative on the subject of the loan copy of which was forwarded to your lordship in my dispatch number 39 confidential of the 11st instant.

Dealing with the charge of contradiction brought against him by the French representative for edeavoring to take advantage of some arrangements not mentioned in the contract and rejecting others that stand on the same footing, the minster rejoins that the time limit of six to nine months rests upon the admissions made by Monsieur de Plancy himself at an interview which he had with the late foreign minister on the 28th January last.

Monsieur de Plancy had expressed surprise that the minister should have betrayed ignorance as to the identity of the person to whom the transfer of the contract was notified and this gives his Excellency the opportunity of retorting that he could not be expected to have an intuitive knowledge of what had never been brought to his notice.

In the concluding paragraph of his note the minister declares once more that the Corean government absolutely decline to be bound any longer by the contract and notwith standing Monsiern de Plancy's warning to the contrary, he asserts their right to contract a loan in any other quarter they please.

According to information which has reached e from the Palance, Baron de Beliescize seems to be reverting to the idea of abtaining a Minig concession in return for the abandonment of the Loan contract but the Corean government are not disposed to accept this solution at present.

Having regard to all the circumstances more especially to the firm attitude assumed by two successive foreign ministers and the present finance minister, my Japanese colleague and myself feel ourselves fustified in considering the loan contract as practically frustrated and I had the honour to telegraph to your lordship in this sense today. The question will however, continue to receive our most careful attention.