ABSTRACT
These new buildings were not to be erected without something of a struggle. By the late 1880s, the Foreign Office had become convinced that there was no alternative, and had asked the Office of Works in Shanghai to begin the process. The Office of Works, having been assured that it was intended to keep an officer of at least consul-general rank in Seoul, agreed to do so. The Treasury, however, was less accommodating, refusing to sanction any work:
. . . so long as the consular establishment in Corea is only a provisional detachment from China and Japan, without any distinct organisation or recognition in the Parliamentary Estimates, My Lords [i.e. the Treasury] think it inexpedient to ask Parliament to provide for the erection of permanent Consular buildings in that country of the expensive nature indicated in your report.
