The Washington herald., 1917-07-05
NILITARYLEAKPROBED
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.


day that only three men knew of the
orders for the movement Of American
troops overseas. They were Secretary
Daniels. Admiral Benson. chief of
operations. who framed the orders,
and one other man, whose name was
not made public. but is known to hold
a high command Admiral Cleaves, In
command OF the convoy. himself did
not know what the orders were until
after he had put to sea. They were
given to him sealed with instructions
to be opened after he had passed the
three-mile limit.
So there was no possibility OF any
leak in this respect, the department
believes. The orders sent to Vice Ad-
miral Sims at London to meet the
transports and conveys at a rem
devious on the edge of the submarine
zone were not cabled until a week
after the transports had sailed. Then,
the navy's most secret code-one espe-
cially designed for use with Admiral
Sims and known to only two or three
persons-was used. Even had the Ger
mans obtained this message and de-
coded it, it would not have explained
how they were able to attack the
transports even before Admiral Sims
lad obtained his orders and far from
the submarine zone.
The official belief yesterday, based
on the decrease in the submarines
toll of merchant ships during the last
two weeks. is that Germany. knowing
American troops were about to cross
the ocean and determined that a blow
should be delivered which would strike
panic to the United States, withdrew
practically every submarine she had
from other work and sent out several
fleets of big U-boats to patrol every
possible route the American ships
might take to their destination.
1t was pointed out that Germany
knew Gen. Pershing was in France
and possibly could have obtained in
formation of the preparations being
made to receive the American troops
at which port a camp was being es-
tablished and other arrangements
made. She then would be able to
judge what routes to patrol and. as
it was self-evident that protection
would be afforded the ships within the
submarine zone, the natural thing to
do was to wait for them outside.
Probable Sources of Leak.
1t was also shown that activities
around the docks at the seaports from
which the American troops departed
could easily have been discovered by
German agents. The navy is investi-
eating the methods by which this in
formation could have been sent to
Berlin. Three present themselves
German wireless stations in Mexico,
Venezuela, Argentina and on a GER
tain Dutch island, which long has
been under suspicion.
The Mexican government claims
that the station there has a radius for
dispatching of only few hundred
miles, but 1t has been proven scien-
tifically that in favorable weather
long-distance sending is possible. An
ordinary commercial message might
contain the information which a Ger
man spy here desired to convey to
his partner in Mexico, Venezuela or
wherever else open wireless commune
cation with Germany was possible. All
messages sent on the cables are to
be reinspected. The powerful German
station at Nauen-a wireless city in
itself-can do unheard of things in the
air, 1t is known. and this line of COM
munication presents itself as the most
probable.
In this connection It was learned
yesterday that the great wireless sta
tion at Arlington, with a radius of
thousands OF miles, has direct orders
to copy every message going through
the air. The Arlington station can
speak" Honolulu. Germany, Panama,
Paris, and practically all the stations
over half the world Including the
Panama, Venezuela and Dutch sta
tions, and is enabled to copy every
word they send.
These orders were given that the de-
partment might "be kept in touch
with what Is going on in the world"
1t will be an easy matter to compare
messages and dates sent over the
cables from Africa and picked up by
the Arlington station being sent from
some other point to determine wheth-
er there is any similarity and 50 trace
down this line of inquiry.