The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-02-01
BERLIN ORDERED
LUSITANIA SUNK
Code Cipher Explains Ads" Warn
in" American Travellers OF Dan
@er-F'ull Proof of Crime.

New York, Jan. 3O.-The cipher
messag ge which proved that Berlin
directed the sinking of the Lusitania
is made public for the first time in
the Worlds Work Magazine, pub
lished today. John +. Rathom, edI-
tor of the Providence Journal, which
exposed numerous German plots in
this country during the last three
years, in an article giving in detail
the methods he used to unearth the
work of the German agents, quotes
this message from his files, and eX-
plains how it was decoded. The mes
sage, in cipher, reads as follows.
From-Berlin Foreign Office.
To-Botschaft. Washington.
$50 (44-W)--Welt Nineteen-fif-
teen warne 175 30 1 stop 175 l a
stop durch 622 2 4 stop 10 IS stop
LIN II 4 5 6.
This cipher message came through
from Nauen, Germany, to Sayville,
Long Island, at o'clock on the
morning of April %, 1915, and was
caught by the operator at a wireless
station maintained by the Providence
Journal 1t was especially interest
ing because it followed none of the
codes which they had previously OBJ
served 1t was evidently important,
because four attempts were made to
put it through before the German
station succeeded in overcoming the
unfayorable static conditions which
prevailed that morning. Every at
tempt to decipher it failed, until
somebody with q line on the internal
activities of the German Embassy re-
membered that during that morning.
Prince HatZfeldt, of the embassy
staff, had been looking for a New
York World Almanac. The first two
words of the message. welt Ger
man for World) 1915" supplied the
clue Following the other numbers
IN the message as representing page,
line and word in the World Alma
nae for 1915, the Journal men de-
coded the message as follows: Warn
Lusitania passenger (s) through
press not voyage across the Allan
tic Two days later the German
Embassy printed the now historic
advertisement in the New York pa
pers warning travellers not to cross
the Atlantic, and week later, on
May /. the Lusitania was sunk by a
German submarine.
A dramatic touch of suggestion of
death in the message lies in the fact
that the word not in it is taken from
the first sentence of an obituary OF
the late Joseph Pulitzer, former own
er of the World, which publishes the
Almanac. And another grim bit of
irony in it is that the last four
words were taken from an advertise
ment of a well-known marine motor
headed The Seal of Safety at Sea.
Two words of the message are
spelled out in German. They ar'
''warne," which in English is''warn,
and "durch," which means thru
The word "botschaft" is German ton
embassy" -
The German Ambassador, IN
sa'a.. A----,-
tania, declared that the au
ment he had published in the
York papers was inserted on his own
responsibility and had no particular
reference to the Lusitania. AS print
ed, this advertisement mentioned no
ship by name. But the cipher mes
sage now reveals the fact that D.
deliberately lied and that Berlin ~
rected the whole tragedy
Incidentally, Mr.. Rathom's article
adds that on the evening atter' the
Lousitania was sunk, when trlends
of Won Bernstorff declared that he
was overwhelmed with grief and Sc
cluded in his rooms in a New York
hotel, he was in reality giving a din
ner in the apartments OF friend IN
New York and there toasted the
commander of the U-boat which
sank til elmer