The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-02-12
CODE LETTERS
ARE FOUND ON
SUSPECTED SPY
Officers Believe that German
Steward Had System OF
Sending Movements OF
Transports.

NEW YORK, Feb. IA code let
ter giving symbols and orders for the
German spy system in the united
States in transmitting to Germany IN
formation about the sailings OF Amer
lean transports was exhibited by Oh
ficers of the Naval Intelligence Serv-
ice in the examination of Relnt SOBER
ings, German subject, before United
States Commissioner John A. Matt
hews in Newark yesterday. Soberings
was second steward on the Dutch "a
er, Nieuw Amsterdam, that had Ger
man permission for unrestricted pass
age through the barred zone presum-
ably because the German spy system
had succeeded in listing passengers
and sailors who were to transmit Or
ders to the spy system here, and he
had the code letter in his possession
when he was arrested on the ship
shortly after she locked on Wednes-
day.
Officers of the Naval Intelligence
Service refused to discuss the letter
in detail, but extracts were given out
by Federal officials, who said that the
context showed clearly that an effort
was being made to transmit orders
and parts of new code to the Ger
man spy system here. The letter was
written in two types of handwriting
and perhaps by two persons. the offic-
ers said. One was written in English
in a foolish CODE" and requests for
facts upon avenues Of transmitting to
Germany information upon the sailing
of American troops on transports. 1t
was said that the other type of hand
writing was interspersed in small
scraps and symbols throughout the
letter, between the lines, and running
into other words and sentences, and
the officers thought that this was
code to be used in sending informa-
ton to Germany. One of the deciph-
cred scraps was:
"Sent Southern cables. Where do
we go from here? Answer"
Officers of the Intelligence Service
refused to say whether they thought
this meant that the German spy sys-
tenn was using South American cables
leading to the Cape Verde Islands and
to Africa and Europe; within the cru
Using radius of the type of submarine
sailed by the German commander.
Kophamel, when he made his trip to
the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands
and won his Iron Cross on the report
that he had sunk an American de-
stroyer presumed to have been the
Jacob Jones. They made no comment
upon the suggestion that the Germans
might be able to get information over
the cables despite the watch set by
the Allies.
Another scrap Of the letter read:
Send three cables. Where to now"
Nor would the officers say whether
this meant that the German espionage
system on the other side was out of
communication with agents in this
country and were seeking to establish
information upon our war activities.
new channels for the transmission Of
No other scraps of the letter were Civ
en- out. but the officers remarked that
the two sentences gave good idea OF
the intention of the writer's.
Soberings gave various accounts of
his orders for the delivery of the let
ter in America. but he told the Com
missioner yesterday that the sealed
envelope, with no writing whatever on
the outside, had been given to him by
a married sister in Rotterdam with
the request that it be delivered to a
man who would seek him out when
the ship reached her pier here. The
salutation of the letter contained the
name of Middleton Cobb, of Boston.
Soberings said his sister told him the
note was love missive from her
friend, Frau Rapmund, who was di-
vorced from a German known as Herr
Won de Boer. and was intended for her
fiance in the United States.
The German steward said he had no
knowledge of the contents of the letter
and thought that it was a love note
He asserted that he became frightened
when he saw the posted notices on the
Nieuw Amsterdam that the United
States government would not allow
passengers or crew to bring mail
ashore and he tried to hiGe the letter.
The ship was coming up the bay here
when he tried to dispose Of the letter
by pushing 1T behind loose moulding
in the smoking room on the ship. A