A crowd of Koreans, estimated to number several thousand, marched yesterday from Seoul to Chemulpo, and smashed the cups presented by Mr Starbuck to the winners of the annual athletic sports at Chemulpo, in protest against the establishment of a day of national mourning. The crowd, which was orderly, afterwards proceeded to the cemetery, and placed wreaths on the graves of dead patriots. The demonstrators then returned quietly to Seoul. The authorities took no action. The affair caused no excitement. The Starbuck cups have been presented to the winners of athletic sports at Chemulpo annually for several years past, and the demonstration of yesterday was the first protest against them. The promoters of the sports are Britons, and the promoters of the demonstration are Koreans. The former contend that the contests encourage a healthy physical development among the people, and the latter maintain that they tend to habituate the people to foreign ways, which are disliked by all patriotic Koreans. The promoters of the sports reply that the contests merely tend to bring the people into friendly rivalry, and that rivalry is the life of trade. The matter is thus likely to end in smoke.
Original dispatch: South Korean activists smash Starbucks cups to protest ‘Tank Day’ campaign