The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1900-08-04
CHINESE KNOW OUR CODE.
Claimed That rheyKnow the sscre'

SiulNneU INat Iney hnOW the SaCref
Cipher.
Kansas City, July 31.-A Washing
ington special to the Star says:
How is it that Director General
Sheng, at Shanghai, and Governor
Yuen, of Shan Tung, new not only the
substance, but the language, of the
alleged Conger cipher message before
that message had been received in
Washington?
This is n question that is botherinq
Secretary Hay, and 1T is one which
he can answer only by concluding that
these Chinese officials, or one of them
was in possession of the state depart.
ment cipher code. The SECRETARY is
satisfied that the contents of the Con.
ger cipher message We're known tc
Yuen and Sheng at the time the mes.
sage passed through their hands fol-
transmission to Washington.
How the Chinese obtained the code
opinions differ. The state department
is more careless about its cipher code
than are some of the European for.
eign officers, who are suspicious OF
each other, but the code IS carefully
guarded, and every minister and other
official into whose hands a copy of II
is entrusted signs a pledge that the
safety of the code book and it's de-,
struction in time of danger shall be
his first care.
notwithstanding this, however, two
copies of the code have disappeared
within the past twenty years. One OF
these was supposed TO have been
stolen from a United States legation
in Europe, within the last three years
This led to a change of the code used
between the state department and
European countries, but the old code
book was still used i'll China and some
other parts of the world.
1t is said ut the department. that
code book locked UP in the legation
safe except when ii was in use, and
that possibly, if the legation was loot,
ed, the minister did not have time e
open the safe and secure the book OF
destroy it when he and the othe,
members of the legation escaped tc
the British legation.
Even If the legation building wa
burned the book would be preserved
in the fire-proof safe which the Chi.
nese would be able to blow open II
is also possible. though not considered
probable, that the book was stolen by
some Chinese servant of the legation
who was n secret emissary of the i'm.
perial government.
The theory to which the cipher ex
perts of the state department seem tc
incline is that the Chinese govern.
ment has maintained a corps Of cipl1.
er experts and that by obtaining
through Sheng's agents in the tcle.
graph service, copies of all the cipher
dispatches that diplomatic represen.
t~atives OF the United States have sen,
out of China for a long time, and tber
waiting for the publication Of para.
phrases of these dispatches in the an,
nual publications Of the foreign CORE.
spondence of the government, they
have been able to construct a fairly
reliable key to the cipher.
However this may be, Secretary
Hay. who was the strongest defender
of the gcnuineness Of the alleged Con,
ger dispatch, has come to have very
little faith in it. That Yuen and
Sheng knew the contents of the Con.
ger dispatches, Secretary Hay nc
longer doubts. Ability to read i'm.
plies ability to write, md the conclu,
sion is almost irresistibly forced upor
the secretary that the alleged mes,
sage is either a clever forgerY..o or tina,
it is an old message, which the Chi.
nesc had intercepted and which
Sheng picked sout and sent to Secre
tary fIay, knowing that it could be
constructed MS an answer to the mes.
sage which the state department had
= sent to the minister,