Evening journal., 1918-01-30
Berlin ORDERED
LUSIIAKIA SUNK
Ads Warning America
Travellers Now Explained;
World Almanac is Code
PROOF OF HUN CRIME
AT LAST REVEALED

The cipher message which proved
that Berlin directed tie sinking Of the
Lusitanis is made public for the first
time in the Worlds Work magazine
published today John r. Rathom.
editor of the Providence Journal. which
exposed numerous German plots in
this country during the last three
years. In an article giving in detail tho
methods he used to unearth the work
on the German agents. quotes this mes
sage from his files, and explains how It
was decided The message, In cipher,
reads as follows;
From-Berlin Foreign ONCE
To Botschaft. Washington.
$50 ,44-N)-Welt nineteen fifteen warne
rs % 1 stop It's ? stop durch 622
, stop 10 z IS stop LIX Il 4 6.
This cipher message came through
from Nauen, Germany 10 Sayville,
Long Island, at O'Clock on the morn
ing OF April %, 1915, and was caught
by the operator at a wireless station
maintained by the Providence Journal.
II was especially interesting because 1t
followed none Of the codes which they
had previously observed Il was evil
IDENTIFY important, because four attempts
were made to put II through before the
German station succeeded in overcom-
ing the unfayorable static conditions
which prevailed that morning. Every
attempt 10 decipher il failed, until
somebody with a line on the internal
activities Of the German Embassy re-
menbered that during that morning
Prince Hatzfeldt, Of the Embassy STAFF,
had been looking for New York World
Almanac The first two words Of the
message. welt German for 'World)
1918" supplied the clue Following the
other numbers in the message as repre-
senting page. line, and word IN the
world Almanac" for 1915. the Journal
men decided the message as follows
"Warn Lusitania passenger 81 through
press not voyage across the Atlantic.
Two days later the German Embassy
printed the now historic advert isement
in the New York papers warning trav-
slers not TO cross the Atlantic and a
week later, on May 7th, the Lusltania
WIS sunk by German submarine
4 dramatic touch Of suggestion Of
death in the message lies in the fact
that the word not in It is taken from
the lrst sentence OF an obituary Of the
ate Joseph Pulitzer. former owner of
the World. which publishes the al
manac" And another grim bit OF
irony in It is that the last four words
were taken from an advertisement of
a well-lnown marine motor headed
"The Seal Of Safety at Sea-
Two words Of the message are spelled
out in German They are "warne,"
which in English Is warn and
.durch." which means Through" The
word "Botschaft" is German for EN-
hassy."
The German Ambassador. immedI-
aiely after the sinking Of the Lusltania,
declared that the advertisement he had
published in the New York p0pers was
inserted on his own responsibility and
bad no particular reference to the
Lustania As printed, this advertise
ment mentioned no ship by name. But
the cipher message now reveals the fact
that be deliberately lied and that Ber-
I'm directed the whole tragedy
incidentally, Mr.. Rathoms article
adds that on the evening after the
Lusii8nia was sunk. when friends OF
Won Bernstorff declared that he was
overwhelmed with grief and secluded in
his rooms IN a New York hotel. he was
in reality giving a dinner in the apart
ments Of a friend IN New York and
there toasted the commander Of the
I-boat which sunk the liner.