At Cape Kronotsky

At Cape Kronotsky Any U. S. citizen who is qualified to order a Businessman's Lunch knows one of the most important products of Russo-Japanese commerce: crabmeat salad. Tinned crabmeat sold in the U. S. comes from the terrible nippers of huge sea crabs (Tarabha ) that breed in the cold rocky inlets of Russia's Kamchatka. They are caught offshore by Japanese fishermen.

Recently three Japanese crabbers, from the fishing vessel Fumi Maru, were said to have attempted to land at Cape Kronotsky, Kamchatka, in a small boat in search for water. Spy scares are thicker than crabs on the cape. A Soviet patrol was reported to have surprised them, shot them down. In Moscow Japanese Ambassador Tamekichi Ota instantly demanded permission for the Japanese Consul at Petropavlovsk to board the Japanese destroyer Tachikaze, visit the scene of the affair and make a report. It was refused on the grounds that the Tachikaze was a warship, but the Consul was given permission to go on any civil vessel.

The Tachikaze did not wait, but steamed to the scene, sent a landing party ashore and made its report. All this the Japanese Government ineffectively tried to deny.

Moscow seethed. Vice Commissar for Foreign Affairs Gregory Sokolnikov protested to the world: "Without waiting for our investigation the Tachikaze illegally penetrated Soviet waters and landed part of a crew which arbitrarily explored the shore. . . . The Soviet Government cannot fail to express utter surprise."

With no settlement in sight and Russo-Japanese feelings tense over the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Kronotsky incident left Russians inflamed. Still more crabbed was Hajime Suritate, head of the Kakumeiso reactionary organization in Tokyo. Brooding the fate of his compatriots on the cape, angry Hajime broke into the office of Soviet Commercial Attache M. Kotchetov with a large glittering sword in his hand. Shrilling Japanese imprecations, he poked his sword through the windows, chopped up the office railings, hacked at the desks, made ineffective swipes at the office staff before retiring to the police station and giving himself up.

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