RUSSIA: Blunt Words

Georg Tchitcherin, Bolshevik Commissar of Foreign Affairs, went to his office, strutted and fretted, took him a pen and wrote big words full of sound and fury, signifying little.

He protested to the U. S. against the “repeated entry of American war vessels into the territorial waters of the Union of Soviet Republics without permission.”

Specifically, Russia did not like the fact that the U. S. Coast Guard cutter Bear had taken magnetic observations in her territorial waters. It was also brought to his attention that upon a rock on Chukotsk Peninsula, in Emma Bay, Cape Pusino, Bering Strait, had been found a brass plate with the inscription “United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Magnetic Station. For information write Superintendent, Washington. For disturbing this mark, $250 fine or imprisonment.”

When Commissar Georg heard this, he penned:

“I must emphasize that the erection of the foregoing plate and the threat to Soviet citizens inscribed on it constitute a gross violation of the sovereignty of the Soviet republics.

“Emphatically protesting to the United States Government against such lawless acts by their officials, obviously unable to distinguish where their own State territory ends and another sovereign country’s territory begins, I am obliged to notify you that such violation of the legitimate rights of the Union of Soviet Republics, if repeated, will be sternly repressed by the Soviet Government.”

In the language of diplomacy, even a declaration of war is written with due observance of the amenities. A Government may be stern and firm but it is always polite. Hence “sternly repressed” had an ugly ring. The justice of Russia’s case, if true, is evident; but, as no previous protest had been made, the note seemed unnecessarily blunt. But, insofar as could be judged, Washington took the view that His Britannic Majesty’s Government took with reference to the Zinoviev letter (TIME, Dec. 1.)—that the Government of the U. S. cannot consent to “receive” the note addrsseed to it by the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.