“Vladivostok. It really gave one the sensation of being at the end of the world. It was a long journey that Ashenden had made from New York to San Francisco, across the Pacific in a Japanese boat to Yokohama, then from Tsuruki in a Russian boat, he the only Englishman on board, up the Sea of Japan. From Vladivostok he was to take the Trans-Siberian to Petrograd.”–MR HARRINGTTON’S WASHING by W. Somerst Maugham
I wonder whether “Tsuruki” should read “Tsuruga”.
“In 1910, an international route between Tsuruga port and Vladivostok was started.
So since 1912, the through train from Tokyo connecting with the ship had been operated until the start of World War II.” http://www.travel-around-japan.com/k48-09-tsuruga.html
The name of the port town is 鶴賀(Tsuruga). I suppose that Aschenden (or Maugham) as an “MI6” agent left 鶴賀 for ウラジオストック(Vladivostok).
“As he[Maugham] was unable to return to his ambulance unit, Syrie arranged for him to be introduced to a high-ranking intelligence officer known as “R;” he was recruited by John Wallinger.[21] In September 1915, Maugham began work in Switzerland, as one of the network of British agents who operated against the Berlin Committee, whose members included Virendranath Chattopadhyay, an Indian revolutionary trying to use the war to create violence against the British in his country. Maugham lived in Switzerland as a writer.”
“Sir John Arnold Wallinger (25 October 1869 – 7 January 1931) was a British Indian intelligence officer who led the prototype Indian Political Intelligence Office from 1909 to 1916. He was also the literary prototype of the spymaster of a number of Somerset Maugham’s short stories. Wallinger is credited with leading the Indian intelligence missions outside India, notably against the Indian Anarchist movement in England, and later against the Berlin Committee and the Hindu-German Conspiracy during World War I. Among his more famous agents was Somerset Maugham who was recruited as a British agent in Switzerland.[1]”