The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-01-30
CODE CIPHER REVEALS
THAT BERLIN ORDERED
THE LUSIT4NI4 SUNK
Proof of Germany's Crime Given-Adver-
tisements Warning American Trav-
elers Are Explained by Use of
World Almanac Code.

The cipher message which proved that
Berlin directed the sinking of the Lusi
tania is made public for the first time in
the Worlds Work magazine, published
to-day. John r. Rathom, editor of the
Providence Journal, which exposed nu-
[ merous 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
explains how it was decided The mes.
sage, in cipher. reads as follows:
From-Berlin Foreign Office
To Botschaft, Washington.
$50 Wl--Welt nineteen fifteen warne
l75 % stop us stop durch 822
4 stop 10 Is stop Liz II 3456
This cipher message came through
from Nauen, Germany, to Sayyille, Long
Island, at o'clock on the morning of
April %, 1915, and was caught by the OPP
orator at a wireless station maintained
by the Providence Journal. IT was espe-
cally interesting because il followed none
of the codes which they had previously
observed. II was evidently important
because four attempts were made to put
it through before the German station sue
ceeded III overcoming the unfavorable
static conditions which prevailed that
morning. Every attempt to deeipher it |
failed, until somebody with line on the |
activities of the German enbas |
sy remembered that during that morning /
Prince Hatzfeldt, of the embassy staff, !
had been looking for New York World |
Almanac" The first two words of the
"Welt German for World |
1915" 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
lecoded the message as follows: Warn
.usitania passenger ts) through press
not voyage across the Atlantic" Two
lays later the German embassy printed
he now historic advertisement in the
New York papers warning travellers not
o cross the Atlantic, and week later.
N May I, the Lusitana was sunk by a
ierman submarine.
A dramatic touch of suggestion of
Ieath in the message lies in the fact that
he word mot" in il is taken from the
rst sentence of an obituary of the late
oseph Pulitzer, former owner of The
World, which publishes the Almanac
md another grim bit of irony in it is
hat the last four words were taken from
n advertisement of a well-known ma
inc motor headed, The Seal of Safety
{ Sea"
Two words of the message are spelled
ut in German. They are "warne." which
. English is warn; and "durch. which
leans through" The word "Botschaft"
German for embassy"
The German ambassador. Immediately
fter the sinking of the Lusitania. Z.
AIRED that the advertisement he had
in the New York papers was
lserted on his own responsibility and
nd no particular reference to the Lusi
mia. As printed, this advertisement
entioned no ship by name. But the
pher message now reveals the fact that
, deliberately lied. and that Berlin di-
cited the whole tragedy.
Incidentally. Mr. Rathom's article adds
at ON the evening after the Lusitania
as sunk. when friends Of Won Bern
Off declared that he was overwhelmed
ith grief and secluded in his rooms in a
ew York hotel he was in reality giving
dinner in the apartments of friend in
sw York. and there toasted the com
snder Of the L boat which sunk the
Ter {