National Insult

The day was that upon which the U. S. Immigration Act went into force. In the U. S. Embassy Compound in Tokyo, the Stars and Stripes flew proudly from a tall mast. A Japanese, watched by an unsuspecting Tokyo "bobbie," hauled the flag down, cut it from the halyards with a razor, crumpled it up, fled. The "bobbie" suddenly came to, realized the gravity of the man's action, made off after him -but in vain; his quarry escaped him.

Jefferson Caffery, U. S. Charge d'Affaires, called upon Foreign Minister Baron Shidehara (onetime Ambassador to the U. S.) and asked him to make immediate investigation. Twice did the Foreign Minister call upon Mr. Caffery in order to express his concern over the incident and to offer the "most sincere regrets" of his Government. "Surely," said he, "no one in the U. S. would believe the Japanese people capable of sympathizing with an outrage of this kind " He also said that the police would do their utmost to apprehend the culprit--which they later succeeded in doing.

The U. S. State Department in Washington, inclining toward the Latin maxim: Ira furor brevis est, discounted from the first the significance of the incident, feeling certain that it was but the act of an irresponsible.