The Detroit times., 1917-09-17
sherlock" Uncle Sam
Deciphers Secrets Holding
Peoples Destiny

WASHINGTON. Sept l7-with the disclosure
of the Swedish secret diplomatic notes following
on the heels OF the uncoycrIng ~ Zimmerman s.
secret Instructions In the famous Mexican note"
Uncle sam fast developing a reputation as the
sherlock Holmes of me Diplomatic World
Derded by foreign diplomats for sack o. skin
n diplomatic intrigue. the American state de-
partment has nevertheless been me source thru
which Tile most treacherous German foreign on
nee ntrgues have been uncovered
How me United States came INTO possession
~ rhesc secret messages on which RE fate OF
nations turns and bow 10 was able 20 translate
DE intricate cipher messages OF Germany and
sweden. are questions THAT have puzzled many
people There and probably viii continue
~ De- . errat,ussftry stors connected With ne
means used by state department agents 90 secure
he diplomatic correspondence Of foreign coun.
cries. o.th- the sarsvdest gusssers In Washing.
Ten say tha Swedish notes must nave come thru
3 proa,1 employee Of he swedish legation ~
Bueros Ayres
Bur there So no mystery about the methods
asei in iecrherilg secret messages You can
pu' this down sour notebook there Is no mes
sage OF HE length ~ me Swedish cabiegrams.
written ia cipher that Uncle sans topographic
experts cannot speedily unravel
u ~ was afeworG message in n new cipher
or even longer message written IN code for
reasons that ] viii explain later, ,he experts
might b. bNkei Bur according 10 The cipher
specialists there Is no cipher message Of more
han 81 words That cannot Intimately be read
and practically an diplomatic correspondence OF
ans consequence ls sure % be ar least thar long
Secret messages are written either Ia cipher
or code In cipher signs. numbers or other let.
ters aye substituted Tor me letter. Of he orig
nal message In code words or signs are
substituted for words. phrases or even entire
sentences % the original message
The reason long cipher messages can lnvari
ably be read Is that In substituting ,or The le'.
ters Of the original message system must be used
II the message s 70 be decipherable By the re-
cipienL In a message ~ IS words or more some
trace OF that system is bound % show W. while
10 short messages Of say five words It is not like
= -h2t Ia cAaz2a-a-A E--- H. a-4-A4 frequent
ly enough 20 reveal the system short messages
can be declphered only In The light O., longer
messages Of the same cipher. or by skilful and
repeated guessing
In code messages. on the other hand. there IS
ordinarily no system The words or signs are
arbitrarily chosen with the very idea Of avoiding
system. Code messages unless very long or
very simple, cannot therefore be read without
the code book This limits code correspondence
TO cases in which both parties have code books
AZ hand
Furthermore the entire arrangement becomes
valueess as soon SIS a copy of the code falls into
the hands Of The enemy For this reason steal.
ing oode-books is the great international pas;ine
Codes arc 20 frequently stolen that diplomats
generally distrust them
The system used In cipher messages shows up
in the frequency With which certain letters and
combinations 81 letters occur, II the simpler
cipher systems are used II g. equally surely
revealed by the occurrence. OF certain character
stc variations from that normal frequency, II
complex methods OF obscuring th- message ara
used
The art % euciphering and declpherfng mes
sages has made very little advance since the
days when Edgar Allen Poe wro,e the Cold
Bug" and showed the frequency with which Ger
tain letters OF the English language REQUIRED was
an almost certain index to deciphering messages.
Indeed an the fundamental principles Of cipher
writing were known in Shakespeare time Lord
Bacon could declpher any message Of me mod
ern diplomats
Uncle same has two sets ~ cIprer wizards
One set Is connected with the state department
and specializes on diplomatic correspondence
l the other is In the Intelligence bureau ~ me
war department and deals with military ciphcrs
Captain Parker Hit az the Z s army has 20
I hfs credit one N the most remarkable achieve
rronts ~ any OF The cipher experts The Do
ciphering IN less than an hour ~ q japanese
message written IN 2 highly complex cipher IN
srtto az the fact that he did NOT know one word
Iof rararese and did not even know The message
was written IN that language he deciphered
( The message and translator did ne rest