The record-union., 1898-01-07
EUR0PE'S BLACK CABINETS.
BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC
MAILS TAMPERED WITH.
Methods Employed by Foreign
Governments to Obtain Pos.
session Of Secrets.

Methods Employed by Foreign
Governments to Obtain Pos
| session Of Secrets.
In spite of all the official protesta-
tions to the contrary, there is in the
General Poctoffice of every capital in
Europe a department administrat lively
known as the BLACK Cabinet" where
the mails, both foreign and domestic,
are tampered with on behalf of the Gov
ernment by men specially selected for
the purpose. There are few statesmen
Of Cabinet rank in the Old World who
have not had occasion to resort to vi
olation of what is so falsely believed to
be the sanctity of the mails confided to
the honor of the State, through the
hands of which they pass. But Prince
Bismarck is the fiji st one openly to boast
of the immense advantages which while
Chancellor he derived from methods of
this questionable character. During
the course of a recent interview with
one of the editors of the ''Neue Freie
Presse,' which is the seni-official or
gan of the Vienna Foreign Office, the
| Prince dfscoursed at some length on
siiAS Peti tiNCial odGICNl, anu lCietiCo w LII
much gusto how all suspicious-looking
4 letters passing through the General
Postoffice at Berlin were submitted to
three expert officials, one of whom
| opened the envelopes with profound
| dexterity, while another took cogniz-
Iance of the contents, and a third closed
them up, so as to show no trace of
manipulation The ex-Chancellor add
| Cd hot l,.a II; -io
managed to deal with the kilograms
traversing German wires.
That the founder of the German EN-
pire was not ronlancing or making fun
of his visitor in speaking thus is am
ply shown by the fact that not one
of the European Governments dares to
intrust to the ordinary mails any Of it's
| foreign dispatches or letters that are of
the least Importance. They invariably
make use of relatively highly paid spec
| Ial messengers, usually retired army
officers, for the purpose, who in Eng
land are known as Queens Messen-
gers" while on the Continent they go
by the name of "Couriers de Cabinet"
They carry their dispatches about their
person, or in their hand and are not
permitted to leave them out of their
4
out the entire trip, which has to be
| accomplished without a break any
where So apprehensive are the Gov
ernments of attempts to fathom their
secrets that the English authorities do
not even place any confidence in the
security afforded by the mailcars con-
veying the Indian mail from Calais to
| Brindisi, the doors of which are sealed
/ hu W. iet, fo1 ofE OF 90 ic
and unsealed only by other British
officials at Br-indisi. For the Govern
ment dispatches are always conveyed
apart from the ordinary mail by a
| special messenger, who leaves London
by the Indian mail every Friday night,
and does not rest until he delivers his
bags to either the Captain or to the
special mail officer of the Peninsula and
| Oriental liner at Brindisf at 4 o'clock
on Sunday morning.
UNTRUSTWORTHY CIPHERS.
1t may possibly suggest itself to the
| reader that the use of a secret cipher
code might go far to obviate the ne
| cessity of employing special messen-
gers. But in reply to this it need only
be said that there is probably no
cipher code in the world that cannot
SCO-ASi u le%tC1 Oc IlSctQ Ny LI4C EADtIlS
which almost every European Govern
ment retains in it's service for the pur-
pose, and who make a speciality of the
art. Sometimes deciphering is mere
child's play, requiring only the exercise
of little logic and reasoning, espe-
cially as a part of the key is mostly
contained in the first or last word of
the message. AT other times the indis-
frfaf nm Of
ance Of the Government to which they
are accredited, as, for instance, when
an ambassador receives by wire a long
dispatch in cipher from his State De-
partment, and then on the following
day visits the Foreign Minister of the
country in the capital of which he is
stationed and communicates to him al
most verbatim the message which he
mas received Incidents of this kind
are lar more frequent than people
might be willing to believe, and it is
needless to point out that they greatly
faclhtate the labors of the official de-
cipherers.
AT nearly every meeting Of the In
ternatonal Postal Congress this ques-
ton OF efiicial tampering with the mails
and With the kilograms (Which every
where IN Europe form part of the State
Postal Service) comes up for discussion.
and invariably leads to the most SOL
emn proteStationS on the part of all the
Government delegates present to the
effect that the powers which they rep
resent are utterly incapable of any
such violation of the most solemn and
sacred stipulations of the Postal Con-
Vention. None are more positive in
this respect than the delegates of Great
Britain. And yet for the last fifteen
or twenty years hardly a single letter
has reached England from the United
states addressed to any person. even re-
motely connected with the advanced
irish movement which has not been
opened at the General Postoffice at ST.
Martins-le-Grand, and closed up and
forwarded to its destination only after
either an abstract or a full COPY of it's
contents has been transmitted to the
Home Office. These are, indeed. almost
the only letters which the English
Government takes the trouble to SUPER
wise. But at Paris, Vienna, Berlin and
in fact, at every capital on the CONT
nent, the BLACK Cabinet operates on
much more extensive scale. and ey-
cry missive addressed to any person
who is in the least degree prominent
in the political, diplomatic, official or
financial world is invariably opened,
examined and noted
INDEPENDENT OF THE POST
MASTER GENERAL
The officials Of the Black Cabinet. as
rule, are Independent of the Post