Crabs v. Railway

The giant crabs, salmon, herring and cod that swarm along the broken Russian coast of the Okhotsk, Japan and Bering Seas, were last week the subject of grave diplomatic conversations in Tokyo and Moscow. Russian property, they became international following the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) when the Japanese demanded and got equal rights with Russians to fish certain waters. After the Russian Revolution, Japanese fishermen stampeded into all the best fishing grounds, exported their crab catch largely to the U. S., their salmon catch to Britain. Not until 1928, when an eight-year Fishing Convention was signed, did the Soviet Government get a firm restraining hand on this fat traffic. This treaty gave the Japanese exclusive rights to certain waters, especially those near the canneries they had built on Russian soil. It kept them absolutely out of other bays, inlets and river mouths. It required Japanese bidders to buy and deposit Russian bonds as security. Later, with the yen still at par (50-c-) and the ruble an unknown quantity in foreign exchange (although having an official gold parity value of 51-c- within Russia),. the Soviet Government broke all precedent by fixing a ruble-yen rate of exchange at 32.5 sen (16-c-). Meanwhile, Russian fishermen, starting with one-fifth of the business, had crowded their way into more than half of it by 1932.

Auction day for this year's fishing rights fell last week. As the big, bearded Russians and the little, rough-handed Japanese gathered in Vladivostok with their bids, the Soviet Government abruptly informed the Japanese that the ruble-yen rate was now 75 sen. As the yen had depreciated to 30-c- since the old rate was fixed, it had dragged the ruble in terms of yen to 10-c-. The new rate raised it to 22-c-. Angrily the Japanese submitted their usual bids with deposits on the old rate. None was accepted.

In Moscow Japanese Ambassador Tamekichi Ota, before auction day came, went to see Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinoff to protest. Mr. Litvinoff, though he had gone to Mr. Ota's reception a fortnight ago, sent out word that now he had "no time" to discuss the matter. The Japanese Government said it had not been informed of the new rate, it was a "discourtesy" and "a serious breach of international agreement," it all proved how untrustworthy Russians are "even when matters of importance are involved."

What part the stalemate in the great Russo-Japanese haggle over the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway (TIME, Feb. 12) had in all this only the Russians knew. Soviet Ambassador Konstantin Yurenev told Japan's Foreign Minister Koki Hirota that the Soviet Government was ready to "reconsider the invalidation of the bids by Japanese fishery interests." Thereupon Minister Hirota announced that "independent" Manchukuo and the Soviet Union may soon agree on a sale price for the Chinese Eastern.

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