Omaha daily bee., 1919-12-21
British Kept Up With Won
Bernstorff
y From the BrookIyn Eagle,

-~o"s
The following material 10 translated from
the latest German nswspapers which have
reached this country. The war inquiry before
which the testimony quoted In the following ar
ticls was given 10 sitting In Berlin to fix re-
sponsibility for Germany's conduct Of the war.
Germanys difficulties In keeping up secret
communication with it, representatives In the
United States during the opening years OF the
testimony of Count Bernstorf before the Ger
man war inquiry in Berlin. England deciphered
every secret German code used in the>wireless
messages sent from Sayville, Count Bernstorff
declared. An attempt to send Albert, the Ger
man propaganda home on the German sub
objected. Interesting excerpts from the stenog-
raphic transcript of the testimony follows:
Romberg-Count Bernstorf took the atti-
tude that Wilson was quite sympathetically In
clined toward Us, whereas in Berlin the strong
est distrust prevailed. I am under the impress
tiers in Berlin, during this important period, .
clear understanding of what was telegraphed
back and forth did not always exist. That
came from difficulty in establishing connections.
If the ambassadors were not in = position to
travel to Germany couldn't an official have
been sent to Germany with the message1 What
steps did he take to make some such arrange
ment with the American government
Count Bernstorff-Our single cable had been
destroyed, so there remained for Us only the
use OF the wireless. The United States gov
eminent took the stand from the very begin
ming that the wireless stations before the war
had not been fully used and that according to
the agreement of The Hague convention their
use could not be extended. The French CAPT
tai was concerned In the enterprise and the
closing of the station. The United States
government thereupon took over the control
of the station and demanded that they be in
formed of the contents of all communications.
We were permitted Ito use codes, but were
obliged to deposit our codes with the American
government which was supposed not to reveal
them to the Entente. If they were actually
revealed, Of course cannot say. 1t became
necessary to send the present Assistant State
Secretary Albert to Berlin by way of the sub
marine Deutschland. This journey was thwarted,
however, by the opposition of Captain Koenig.
would not let me pass. The American govern
ment was made cognizant Of the circums tances
and they recalled Gerard to America.
Ex-Foreign Secretary Zimmerman was then
asked regarding action taken:
Zimmerman-l conferred with Gerard - to
whether it would not have been possible for us
to use the cable more frequently. Gerard ex
planned that the neutrality of his government
must be preserved. 1t could not escape unno-
ticed if we made use of the American cable too
oAlSH' we WeAe tHeH AZ uuty pouH0 " AAAlt ouA
correspondence with Ambassador Bernstorf as
much as possible. Wireless intercourse was alb
solutely unsuited for secret communications.
We were suspicious that our code dispatches
would Immediately become known to the En-
tente. Another possible way of communicating,
by way. Of several neutral stations, could only
be used in exceptional cases Personal COM
munication with the ambassador or a means OF
having our messages personally conveyed would
have been very desirable to use The home
journey Of Secretary Albert was frustrated be-
cause the owners of the submarine Deutschland
did not want to expose themselves to any un-
pleasantness from the American government.
Representative Schuecking-Did you see any
thing unfrendly in the conduct OF the American
government in this case2
Count Bernstorff-We were of the opinion
that the attitude held by the American govern
ment was . false one. They thought they could
not act otherwise in view of The Hague con-
vention.
To question by Dr.. Hoetsch Count Bern
storff replied: The code was not changed as
often az we were accustomed to change it sun-
der normal conditions. When connections were
not cut of entirely, we would change the code,
once every month or once in two months. Only
in the two voyages made by the Deutschland
did we employ two different codes. Later dis
covered that the English had succeeded in de-
coding many of our kilograms. Whenever there
were sufficient number of kilograms at hand,
every cipher could be easily translated.
Dr. Hoetsch-You do not think that treach-
cry or deceit had anything to do with ita
Count Bernstorf-I do not believe there was
any treachery or deceit.