Evening star., 1938-09-25
HULL CODE MEN
MUST KEEP ALERT
Cables Pour In, Day and
Night, on European
Situation.
~ the Associated Press.

~ tne ASSOCldtcQ fTeSS.
Gables all day and at night pour
into the State Department to keep Sec
retary of State Hull and, through him,
President Roosevelt informed Of fast
developing events in the European
crisis.
Throughout Europe, American dip
lomats pay frequent visits to foreign
Offices, sometimes twice day, and
cable the State Department news, reac-
tions and impressions. How do they
speed their messages to the de-
partment?
Suppose Ambassador Joseph Ken
nedy in London has just seen Prime
Minister Chamberlain following a
cabinet meeting, as has frequently
been the case the last few weeks.
The Ambassador drives back to the
embassy, forming his telegram In his
mind as he goes. Arriving at the en-
bassy he dictates cable, striving to
convey his information in the fewest
possible words. He does not write in
the "cableese" of foreign correspond
ents, but dictates in full.
Message Put in Code.
Then a code clerk puts the telegram
into code and sends 1t to the cable
office. When the cable arrives in New
York, it is shunted onto wire rum
ming directly into the State Depart
ment telegraph room in washington.
Here it is received either on tele-
graph-printer machine or by tele-
grapher taking dots and dashes. The
message Is carried to the code room
across the hall.
Code men hastily decode it. Partial
DECIDING enables them to decide
whether 1t is an important message
or whether it can be put aside for
urgent messages from other points.
If the cable is highly important-as
was Mr.. Kennedy's cable telling Secre-
tary Hull of Prime Minister Chamber
lain's intention to fly to see Hitler
the message is sent in the decoder's
pencil Immediately to Secretary Hull.
xOtherwise the cables are memeo-
graphed in the code room, and are
distributed to the department oficials
concerned with the particular develop
ment mentioned.
Code Rooms Never Close. Z
The telegraph and code rooms never
close Clerks are in service there day
and night. Normally there are dozen
en- duty. During the slack hours, par
ticularly between l and o'clock in
the morning, the staff dwindles down
fn &c 1n,o a fA1A
graph operator on duty
If long important message, or sew
eral of them. arrive during the night.
the DECIDING clerk telephones David
A. Salmon, chief Of the Division Of
Communications and Records. Mr..
Salmon routes out additional code
men.
Mr. Salmon has trained other per-
sons In his division in DECIDING so that
in great emergencies he can call on
them also
Because Washington time is five
hours behind London, six hours be-
hind Berlin and Rome, eight hours be-
hind Moscow, cables reporting midday
developments Of an eventful moment
may start pouring in on the code men
when most of Washington Is Just
stirring from sleep.
Hull in Contact With Chiefs.
Secretary Hull can be in immediate
contact with his division chiefs when
ever he wishes On his desk is q mas
ter telephone instrument with con-
nections direct to his chief assistants.
He can buzz" them and get an i'm
mediate answer.
He can thus get their immediate
opinion or call them quickly into con-
ference in his Office.
Throughout the day Hull is on the
receiving end of a constant flow of
information from abroad. His secre-
taries give him the digest of the un-
essential but all else he gets in full
Gables come in not only from en-
bassies or legations in the capitals in
volved in any situation, but also from
embassies, legations and consulates in
other countries which may have con-
nection or reaction, even remote, to
the development in point.
When Secretary Hull receives an
ambassador or minister, he dictates
q memorandum on the conversation
the moment the foreign diplomat
leaves.
Outgoing cables are carefully pre-
pared and have to undergo the scru-
tiny OF a number Of department exec
utives before the messages are sent
out to tell diplomats abroad what the
United States thinks Of a certain sit
uation or intends to do about it
Iron is to be mined in Kooland
Island of Australia and sent to Japan