The Washington herald., 1915-03-15

porting niSCelldneOuS Cdr.OSS. inquiry
as TO the ships of these nations has not
been limited to the character Of the car
goes taken out. but has extended to the
personnel of officers, crews and all per-
sons connected with the companies op-
Grating such boats.
There are believed to he about Isl
Pinkerton agents at work in Portland
Me; Boston. New York. Philadelphia
Newport News. Norfolk. Charleston.
Savannah. Wilmington. y. c.: Baltimore
Jacksonville, Pensacola. San Diego. Los
Angeles, San Francisco. Portland. Ore. !,
Seattle and Tacoma. Wash.
These agents are described in reports
made to representatives of the allied gov
ernments as Informed persons" There
are from one to six such persons in all
the leading cities and shipping points.
There are in New York and Brooklyn
six each. in Philadelphia, four: In Bos-
ton, five; in San Francisco. five: in Bal
timore. three: in Seattle and Portland
Greg, three. and in Tacoma. two.
Those Informed persons are plenti-
fully supplied with money. which they
pay for information. varying from s. to
s. to the person giving it.
Hold Frequent conferences.
Tn" Informed persons throughout the
country collect the information desired
and send It 70 the central agency at %
Liberty street. New York. Allan Pinker-
ton, the chief of the Pinkerton agency,
goes to Washington every week or ten
days To confer with the ambassadors
of England. France and Russia.
So minute is the scrutiny maintained
by the PinkertOns that many reports
which are sfterwaTd found TO have been
without foundation. find their way into
the embassies at Washington and are
communicated by them TO their respective
home governments.
For instance. the Pinkerton agents al
Seattle recently reported that the Ger
man TUrnverein in that city was get
ting ready for an invasion OF Canada
According to report. 5000 German and
Austrian reservists mad been distrib-
uted in the little cities and ports along
Puget Sound in groups of 500 and 700.
The invSsion has not yet taken place
One of the most important under
takingS of the pinkcrtons has been to
learn the names OF American firms
which are under suspicion OF doing
business with Germany and Austria.
The names of several Of these firms
appear in the code.
These minute instructions for use OF
the code We're given to the Pinkerton
National Detective Agency for COM
municating with the diplomatic and
consular representatives of Great Brit
ain, France and Russia:
"A1l kilograms consist OF an irregu
lar number of at least thirteen words.
In order to make the number Of words
irregular the name OF a country Is
added as the first word This word
has no meaning whatever and Is to
k4 81 Il
ciphering the telegram.
The words that are left over and
that then must form an even number
divisable by the multiple Of six are to
be written down the way they follow
as they are read in perpendicular
columns of from one to six, as shown
in the following diagram, so that words
/. and 10, for instance. go in the first
column.
How Word Groups Are Read.
These six-word groups are to be
read and ere to be written in the fol-
five from top to bottom, group in
column two from bottom to too. group
in column six from top to bottom.
group in column three from bottom to
top, group in column one from top to
bottom, and finally group in column
four from bottom 10 top.
IF the real telegram consists OF q
number of words that are divisable
by six there will be added number
Of words which will be meaningless
to the sense of the telegram. so that
the whole number can be divided by
six. seemingly senseless after sem
tence Of deciphered telegram is there
fore not to be considered.
THE first word of the text of tele-
gram is always 'abajarse,' which serves
as a sign that the code 10 being used
and that the real telegram begins with
the second word.
'As far as code words are contained
in the text Of the telegram to be read
meaning will be found in the accom-
panyinE code Consisting of 20 words).