Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-09-01
FOREIGN OFFICE CIPHERs.
Methods Adopted by Foreign Govern
ments for Communicating with ThtNr
Agents.

u 1t may safely be asserted. writes an eN.
u attache in the Pittsburg Dispatch, that
there is no cipher in use by government
! for communication with it's agents aproai
that remains for any length OF time , So
cret to the other powers. and 1t rs diri-
much Importance should have been at.
tached at Washington to the fact that
the message from Major we GonS seud tI have
ID been written in the state department men.
a cipher. inc Chinese have from time
immemorial been adopts. in the art OF
i cyptography. and even If they mad no.
a long ago obtained possession AZ. by ot at;a
n means of the code used by the diplomatic
q service of the United states, II ,hs %ou ~
III decipher any message sent to and from
ri Major Conger.
rs Cipher codes are to such an extent an
n open book. If not to the general pubic
q at any rate to the governments interested
IA in knowing the contents of the dispatches
n for which they are used th ,na' snoul dab he
On employed at all. Indeed. the only advan-
a tage that / can perceive in the employ
81 ment of cipher, is that 1t prevents tne
r from possessing themselves OF the INFORM
IS alton contained in the government dls-
nj patches passing through their hands. in
A order to communicate them to the press.
VI or to non-official persons
~ In the Old World the telesraphs are In
IL government. and it may be taken as
Il general rule that no dispatch comes over
H : the wires to the embassy, legation or d.
4 plomatic agency without the authorities
/, iof the country in which the mission is
: stationed being at once placed in posses
\: sion of a copy of the message. Clever
i cryptographs at once set to work to in
~ terpret the meaning of the communica-
3 ton. and it often happens that the work
IS of decinhering in the cabinet noir' is
y completed before that at the embassy or
Is legation.
y In Russia it has even happened that a
<: cipher dispatch addressed by the English
Z banks o. the Ncva has been held suffi-
&. cient number of hours to admit of the
,. ing himself Of the contents thereof in an
Z important interview with the English en-
voy. who only received his copy of the
\ dispatch after the meeting was over. and
after he had committed both himself ami
his government to obligations which he
would not have undertaken had the DIS
patch arrived in proper time:
F., On another occasion old. Prince Gort-
: chakoff. when chancellor and minister of
foreign affairs. inadvertently mentioned
during the course of a conversation with
the British ambassador-if ] remember
right it was Lord Augustus Loftus-a
piece of information which he could only
have obtained from a cipher dispatch
which Lord Augustus had received from
i. London an hour or so previously. Lord
Augustus could not help congratulating
the prince upon being so well informed
K ers The prince was not in the least dis
concerted. laughed genially, admitted
that they were rather bright, and then
proceeded to demonstrate in the most
unconcerned manner to the ambassador
the reasons why he should not carry out
the Instructions contained in the dispatch
In question.
In order to demonstrate the difficulty
of maintaining the secrecy of a cipher
be pointed out that when a foreign envoy
informs the government to which he is
accredited that he has just been instruct
cd to communicate to it certain mes
letter is a translation of the last cipher
dispatch that ne has received. In fact
his verbal or written note to the govern
ment can only be looked upon as the in
depreciation of the cable or telegram In
question. and if the cipher used has until
then afforded any difficulty to the Black
Cabinet cryptographs. the note handed
by the envoy to the government will fur
nish a key. 1t is difficult to see how this
can be prevented. all the more so as tie
wires are employed for business of
pressing character. and which will not
admit of much delay.
Incidentally 1t may be stated that in
spite of what has been said TO the con-
trary. cipher codes are used in the vari-
Gus diplomatic services exclusively fo-
communication by wire and not for let
ters If the latter are of too confidential
a character to admit of their being sent
by mail. they are dispatched by means
Of special messengers, usually military or
naval officers on half pay. and who re
Ceive from their respective foreign offices
salaries averaging $4,000 year in addition
to travelling allowances.
They never leave their bag of dispatches
out of their hand. and inasmuch as the
bag bears the seals of their government.
no attempt is made to Investigate its
contents by the customs officers at the
various frontiers.
Royal personages in the same way are
in the habit of using a cipher for their
Geographic messages. and a special mes
senger for their confidential letters which
hn, do nnt Ito 20 N m n
But there is no truth in the stories ac-
cording to which cryptography Is used
by the various monarchs to communi-
cate by letter with another. In fact En-
peror William would not find life worth
living if every time that he wished to
write to his grandmother in England
and he is credited with doing every
week-he were obliged to sit down and to
spend a few hours in ciphering the con-
Some governments make use of numer-
ais for their Ciphered communications
with their agents abroad Others mix
ture of numeral Is and words. and yet
others exclusively words. Of course the
only problem that needs solution in dis
patches of this kind is to ascertain the
accomplished the remainder is easy.
though generally very tedious. Indeed 1t
some. head splitting piece of work than
to either cipher or decipher a dispatch
of some 1870 2000 words. | talk from
sad and weary experience.
Some governments change the key word
or key numerals with each dispatch &C
cordinE to a settled arrangement. Others
again change it every month. Sometimes
it is placed at the beginning of the dis
patch. at other times at the end.
To The unintiated dispatch of this
kind will appear in the nature of a Chi
neSe puzzle, but to an expert cryptic
graph the decipherng of a government
code dispatch is mere childs play.
Occasionally the dispatch will appear
mere tumble of consonantS without any
meaning. while at other times 1t will be
ciphered to contain sensible and
plausible sentences, the meaning of
which however, when deciphered. is en-
tirely different to that which appears on
the surface. 1t was a code of this kind
that was used by the Spanish secret
agents in this country during the war
with Spain. and | need not add that the
clever staff of secret service men en-
ployed by the United States government
were in A very short time possessed OF a
key to the cipher in question.
It Is perhaps due to this knowledge that
there is much CareeSSneSS displayed
In connection with the secret code books.
Thus it has been admitted by the state
department at Washington that about a
year ago it was discovered its cipher was
known to number of South American
and European governments. and that an
other code is now in use. The wonder is
that the state department should have