Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-05-21


past few months. when one of its pill
lars, Mr.. Chamberlain, has been at the
other end of the world and has been
transacting much of the business of
the colonial Office from his stopping
places in South Africa All matters
which could not be properly settled,
without consulting him have immedi-
ately been communicated to him from
Downing street by code cablegram,
and the expenses incurred in this man
ner are said to be among the greatest
on record.
Generally the code which is thus
employed by the foreign and colonial
offices is that which is known as the
hve-figure code and which, though not
difficult to decipher, when in the prop
er hands, is very tough puzzle for
those who have no business with a
message which is hidden in it. Both
the sender and the recipient are in
possession of two code dictionaries,
one of which gives first of all the code
numbers in order, so that any of them
could be picked out Ill a few seconds
as in an ordinary dictionary, and the
word equivalent of it. The other die
tlonary, which is for the use of the
person who is sending the message
and who wants to put his English into
code figures, gives every word first
and the code equivalent of it after
ward
Every word is represented by
group of five figures, different figures
and different arrangements of them
standing for different words. Thus the
dictionary may give 1929 as standing
for the word colonial and SS752 for
General Botha,' while the other die
tionary used by the recipient would
put Uganda" first and perhaps the
code group number 47849 as its equiv
alent afterward, constitution being
represented by some such group as
42S01.
The names of the addresses and the
sender are always written. or, rather.
the former is, the other being merely
suggested, so that though the recipient
knows quite well from whom the mes
sage has come, not many others can
do more than guess. In this way
complete message which Lord Lans.
downe, as foreign minister, might
have sent to Mr.. Chamberlain in South
Africa would read as follows: ITO
Chamberlain, Johannesburg - 1895
1880 S4763 S2401 O7SO3 53S29-For-
eign.'
When received by the colonial secre-
tary he would know that the secretary
for foreign affairs had sent it, and bv
the help of his dictionary he would
see that the message meant: quite
agree with suggestion about Cape" or
some other equally plain sentence.
In this way some exceedingly long
messages are continually being sent
from Downing street to all ministers
In the country and abroad, and the
bill for single one of them has more
than once exceeded 6 500. Secret
government kilograms of this descrip-
ton take precedence on the cables of
all other messages. and whenever one
is being sent pilot telegram is sent
along in front of it to clear the wire
and to see that it is not interfered
with in any way. Also on every Brit
ish cable message from the British
government has precedence over the
message of any other government. AS
single mistake among all these
multitudinous figures may either alter
the sense of the message or make If
altogether incomprehensible orders
are usually given for every such mes
sage to repeat back. so that it NAV be
checked and everybody quite satisfied
that it has reached its destination
safely and just as sent.
There would be danger in keeping
to the same code for any length of
time. for no government feels any
continued safety in such matters while
it is known that there are secret serv
ice AGENTS evervwh ere who are willing
to pay high prices for codes and coded
messages. Therefore. the codes are
changed right through from beginning
TO end at FREQUENT intervals. In
y duCe. where Cnc government uses
the five-fgure code in Just the same
wav. Cabinet Noir. as it is called. is
Fent as q denartment of the post
office. and whenever a foreign code
eahlegram passes along the wires.
which is rot q message direct from
or to the French government. staff
of the most expert code decipherers
in tho world take it in hand, and by
anplyirg everv possihla solution to II
try to get at its hidden meaning.
Often thew do so and then if the news
thus discovered is of the slightest i'm
portance il is sent along to the cot
eminent denartments of the Ouai
d'Orsay. Among Others who have
found themselves trained in this
way when using codes on the French
wires was the famous Gen. Boulaneer
The German and Russian govern
ments employ fve-figure codes of their
own for their secret Geographic and
cable messages, and the kaiser per
sonally has a very complete set of his
own which are quite distinct from
those used by the members of his