GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS
Secrecy is, of course, the most important consideration in the
German plots in this country. When Bernstorff wished to arrange
with Berlin to give Bolo Pasha ten million francs to betray his
country, he naturally did not write out his messages in plain
English for every wireless station on both sides of the Atlantic to
read them as they went through the air. He did, to be sure, write
the messages in English, and they looked plain enough--and innocent
enough--but they meant something very different from what they
seemed to mean. And when it got down to the actual transfer of the
money, another German agent in New York signed the messages, which
likewise were not what they seemed.
Those messages were in _code_. (They are reproduced and explained
in this chapter.)
Now _code_ should not be confused with _cipher_. When some Hindus
in New York, subsidized by Berlin, wished to write their plans
to some other Hindus in San Francisco, concerning their common
purpose of fomenting revolution against British rule in India, they
wrote out messages that consisted entirely of groups of Arabic
numerals.
Those messages were in _cipher_.
To any one but an expert, many code messages look simple and
harmless, and cipher messages usually look unintelligible and
suspicious. Yet, oddly enough, the cipher messages are by far the
easier to make out. Indeed, unless you have a copy of the code,
code messages can almost never be translated, whereas a straight
cipher message can almost invariably be unraveled by an expert,
if you give him enough time and material. Hence, by people who
know the subject (and nobody had mastered it so thoroughly as the
Germans), codes are used for secrecy, and ciphers are used simply
as an added precaution and to _delay_ the unraveling of a message
if, by any chance, the enemy has gotten possession of a copy of the
code.
German plot messages, therefore, are usually written out first in
plain German, then coded, and the code then put into cipher. Such
messages are called _enciphered code_.
For an enemy to get them to make sense, he has first to decipher
them, and then decode them. Any expert can decipher them--in time.
Decoding them is a very different matter.
Before taking up some of the German code and cipher messages that
have been translated, with dramatic results, it will be well to
discuss codes and ciphers in general.
A _code_ is an arrangement by which two people agree, when
exchanging messages, always to substitute certain words or symbols
for the real words of the message. Thus, they might agree on these
substitutions:
a = the
French ship = market
sailed from New York = price
sailed from Boston = quotation
to-day = is
for Marseilles = any even number
for Bordeaux = any number with a fraction
With such a code, a German spy in New York could cable a seemingly
harmless message to a friend in Holland, such as:
“The market price is 110.”
That would mean, of course:
“A French ship sailed from New York to-day for Marseilles.”
Whereas a very slight change in wording:
“The market quotation is 110¾.”
would mean:
“A French ship sailed from Boston to-day for Bordeaux.”
[Illustration: CODE MESSAGE TRANSMITTING MONEY TO SIR ROGER CASEMENT
In English it reads: “Embassy. 307-16, New York, April 10, 1916.
Mr. John Devoy has paid in $500 here with the request that they
be transmitted telegraphically to Sir Roger Casement. You are
respectfully requested to proceed accordingly and to charge the
amount to the Military Information Bureau. Receipt enclosed.”]
Messages of that sort could be exchanged daily between a broker
in Wall Street and a broker in Amsterdam, and, by the addition
of a few more words, could be infinitely varied and would look
like perfectly legitimate commercial correspondence. In fact, most
international business before the war (the Government now requires
that all messages appear in plain English) was carried on by coded
cables which turned long messages into short groups of words that
of themselves made gibberish. Several code books for business use
were on the market, containing hundreds of pages of these arbitrary
substitutions, which were useful, not for secrecy but for economy.
A dozen words could be made to say what normally would require five
hundred words.
Ciphers, however, have almost always been resorted to when secrecy
was desired. This sounds like a contradiction. But people who are
not experts use them because they think they are more secret,
since they look so. And experts use them when they are concerned
only with _temporary_ secrecy. They use them, then, because cipher
messages can be written and translated (by one’s correspondent)
without any equipment, like a code book, and much more rapidly than
code. Thus, if a general in the field wishes to send a message
ordering a colonel to advance in two hours, he sends it in cipher,
because it would take the enemy more than two hours to decipher the
message even if he intercepted it immediately, and because after
the two hours have elapsed the information in the message would be
of no value to him.
A _cipher_ is the substitution of some symbol for a letter of the
alphabet. The substituted symbol may be another letter--as writing
_e_ when you mean _a_. Or it may be a figure--as using 42 when you
mean _m_. Or it may be an arbitrary sign--as * to mean _c_. In
cipher, then, every word is spelled out, but the word _Washington_
might be spelled x=‖½?!^:°B if you had agreed that
w = x
a = =
s = ‖
h = ½
i = ?
n = !
g = ^
t = :
o = °
n = B
That is called a _substitution_ cipher, because some other letter
or symbol is arbitrarily substituted for every letter.
But another kind is called a _transposition_ cipher, because
in this the letters of the alphabet are simply transposed by
agreement--the simplest and most obvious example being to reverse
the alphabet, so that _z_ stands for _a_ and _y_ for _b_, etc. Such
a transposition cipher would read:
Alphabet of plain text abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Alphabet of cipher zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba
and _Washington_ would be spelled _dzhsrmtglm_.
[Illustration: A letter from John Devoy, an Irish-American,
exposing his hand in a plot with the Germans to foment revolution
in Ireland]
Perhaps the cleverest transposition cipher ever devised--it is so
good that the British Army uses it in the field and, moreover,
has published text books about it--is the very simple “Playfair”
cipher. First a square is drawn, divided into fifths each way. This
arrangement gives twenty-five spaces, to contain the letters of the
alphabet--_I_ and _J_ being put in one square because there would
never be any plain sentence in which it would not be quite obvious
which one of them is needed to complete a word of which the other
letters are known.
[Illustration]
Next a “key word” is chosen--and herein lie the cleverness and
the simplicity of this cipher, because every time the key word is
changed, the whole pattern of the alphabet is changed. Suppose the
key word is _Gardenia_. It is now spelled out in the squares:
The second A is left out, as there must not, of course, be
duplicates on the keyboard. Now the rest of the alphabet is written
into the squares in their regular sequence:
[Illustration]
That is the complete keyboard. The method for using it is this:
The message is written out in plain text; for example:
DESTROY BRIDGE AT ONCE
(Only capital letters are commonly used in cipher work.) This
message is now divided into groups of two letters, in the same
order, so that it reads:
DE ST RO YB RI DG EA TO NC EX
(The X is added to complete the group and is called a _null_.)
These groups of twos are now ciphered from the keyboard into other
groups of twos, by the following method:
Where two joined letters of the original message appear in the same
_horizontal_ row on the keyboard, the next letter to the right is
substituted for each. Thus, the first two letters of our message
are DE. They occur in the same horizontal row on our keyboard.
Consequently, for D we write E, and for E we go “on around the
world” to the right, or back to the other end of the row, and write
G for E. This gives us DE enciphered as EG.
Where two joined letters of the original message appear in the
same _vertical_ row on the keyboard, the next letter below is
substituted for each.
Where two joined letters of the original message appear neither in
the same horizontal nor the same vertical row on the keyboard, we
imagine a rectangle with the two letters at the opposite corners,
and in each case substitute the letter found on the keyboard at the
other corner of the same horizontal row. This looks complicated,
but in reality is very simple. For example, take the third
two-letter group of our message--RO. The rectangle in this case is
R D E
B C F
L M O
and for R we substitute E, and for O we substitute L.
Substituting our whole message by this system, it reads:
Original DE ST RO YB RI DG EA TO NC EX
Cipher EG TU EL XC AB EA GR UM IF RZ
As telegraph operators are accustomed to send these gibberish
messages in groups of five letters (so that they can check errors,
knowing that when only four appear in a group, for example,
something has been left out) these enciphered groups of twos are
now combined into groups of fives, so that the finished cipher
reads:
EGTUE LXCAB EAGRU MIFRZ
The foregoing looks extremely complicated, but the truth is that
anybody, after half an hour’s practice, can put a message into
this kind of cipher (“Playfair” cipher) almost as fast as he can
print the straight English of it in capital letters. And unless
the person who reads it knows the key word which determined the
pattern on his keyboard, he would have to be an expert to decipher
it, and even he could do it only after a good deal of work.
Another ingenious cipher is called the “Chess Board.” First,
a sheet of paper is ruled into squares exactly like a chess
board--that is, a square divided into eighths each way. This
arrangement gives, of course, sixty-four small squares. Then, by
agreement between the people who intend to use this cipher, sixteen
of these squares are agreed upon and are cut out of the sheet with
a knife. Suppose, for example, this pattern is chosen:
[Illustration]
and the squares showing in white are cut out.
Next, another sheet of paper is ruled into a chess board, of
exactly the same size as the first. The perforated sheet is now
laid on top of the second sheet, so that the squares on the one
exactly cover the squares on the other. Now, with a pen or pencil,
the plain text of the secret message is printed on the under sheet
by writing through the perforations of the upper sheet, only one
letter being written in each square. This, of course, permits the
writing of sixteen letters of the message.
Suppose the complete message is to be:
“Authorize payment ten million dollars to buy copper for shipment
to Germany.” Then the lower sheet, after we have written through
the perforations, will look like this:
[Illustration]
The perforated sheet is now turned to the right through one fourth
of a complete revolution, so that the top of it is at the right
side of the lower sheet and so that the two chess boards again
“match up.” This operation exposes, through the perforations, a
new set of sixteen open squares on the lower sheet. The writing of
the message is continued, and the lower sheet now looks like this
(left):
[Illustration]
Again the perforated sheet is turned to the right, and sixteen
more letters are written. Once more, and the whole sixty-four
squares are utilized, looking like the last cut on the previous
page.
These letters are now put upright, like this.
[Illustration]
They are now read from left to right and from the first line down,
like ordinary reading matter. They are then grouped into fives for
telegraphic transmission, and an _X_ added at the end to make an
even five-group there. Thus the message, as transmitted, reads:
SADUL RRYAL TOHOF TRLNO IRNEI
MZNPI EEIPE PGOMC APYTU LAYHM
EBOOM NRNOT TESTX
When this message is received, it can, of course, be quickly
deciphered by printing it out on a chess board and placing over it
a sheet perforated according to the prearranged pattern.
This survey of codes and ciphers does not more than scratch the
surface of the subject, nor more than suggest the almost infinite
variations that are possible--in ciphers especially. It simply
gives a groundwork for an understanding of the German secret
messages now to be described.
[Illustration: EXTRACTS FROM A GERMAN CODE EXPERT’S BLOTTER
Showing the use of capital letters in the actual work of
enciphering a message, and the combined use of cipher and code]
Among the most interesting of these secret messages is the series
of wireless telegrams by means of which the German money was paid
to Bolo Pasha for the purchase of the Paris _Journal_--one of the
principal episodes in the treasonable intrigue for which Bolo was
recently executed by a French firing squad. These messages were in
English, and meant exactly what they said, except for the proper
names and the figures, which were _code_. To decode them, it was
necessary only to make the following substitutions:
William Foxley = Foreign Office
Charles Gledhill = Count Bernstorff
Fred Hooven = Guaranty Trust Company (New York)
$500 = $500,000
and to all other figures add three ciphers to arrive at the real
amount. For example, one of these messages read: “Paid Charles
Gledhill five hundred dollars through Fred Hooven.” This meant:
“Paid Count Bernstorff five hundred _thousand_ dollars through
Guaranty Trust Company.”
[Illustration: BOLO’S HANDWRITING
A letter written in New York to his bankers in transactions for the
purchase of the Paris _Journal_, with German money, the crime for
which he was shot]
The story of these messages is briefly this: Marie Paul Bolo
started life as a barber, became an adventurer and, in the
service of the Khedive of Egypt, received the title of Pasha for
a financial service which he rendered him. Returning to France
as Bolo Pasha, he married two wealthy women and lived in grand
style on their money. He became an intimate of Charles Humbert,
another adventurer, who achieved political power by questionable
methods and became a member of the French Senate. In the meantime,
the Khedive had been deposed by the British on account of his
pro-Turkish (and hence pro-German) activities after the Great War
began. Abbas Hilmi joined the colony of ex-rulers in Switzerland,
and there became a part of the German system of intrigue. He
received money from the Germans and, after he had deducted his
“squeeze” (which sometimes amounted to half the total), he paid
over the rest to Bolo, to be used by Bolo, Humbert, and ex-Premier
Caillaux in an effort to restore Caillaux to power and then to
further the propaganda for an early and hence inconclusive peace.
[Illustration: A TALE TOLD IN CABLEGRAMS
Code messages in the Bolo Pasha case, explained in the accompanying
pages]
[Illustration]
Either this method of supplying the French traitors with funds
became too dangerous, or the Germans preferred to keep their gold
and wished to use their credit in the United States to get American
gold for this purpose. In any event, Bolo Pasha appeared in
New York early in March, 1916. Strangely enough, this French
citizen bore letters of introduction to several Germans. The most
important was addressed to Adolf Pavenstedt, who was senior partner
in G. Amsinck & Company and for many years a chief paymaster of
the German spy system in this country. Through Pavenstedt, Bolo
met Hugo Schmidt, a director of the Deutsche Bank of Berlin, a
government institution, who had been sent to this country soon
after the war broke out to provide complete coöperation between the
older representatives of the Deutsche Bank here and the management
in Berlin.
Through Pavenstedt, as messenger, Bolo also got in touch with
Bernstorff, and arranged the details of the plan by which Bolo was
to receive 10 million francs from the German Government. He was
to use this money to buy the Paris _Journal_, which would then
be edited by Senator Humbert, who agreed to change its editorial
policy to favour an immediate peace. As the _Journal_ is one of the
most powerful dailies in France, with a circulation among more than
a million and a half readers, the sinister possibilities of this
scheme are readily seen.
[Illustration: MR. A. BRUCE BIELASKI
Who, as Chief of the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of
Justice, organized and managed the Government agents who unraveled
the German plots and captured the plotters]
Bernstorff committed the financial details to Hugo Schmidt. He, in
turn, asked Berlin by wireless for suitable credits in American
banking houses. These were arranged with the Guaranty Trust
Company and the National Park Bank--for many years American
correspondents of the Deutsche Bank. The amounts were then credited
to G. Amsinck & Company, of which Pavenstedt had long been senior
partner. He, in turn, placed them, with the New York branch of the
Royal Bank of Canada, to the account of Bolo Pasha. As the exchange
rate at the time ran in favour of American dollars and against
French francs, the 10 million francs (normally equal to about
2 million dollars) which Bolo got, required only $1,683,500 of
American money--which is just the sum of the amounts named in the
wireless messages.
The _Journal_ was actually bought by Bolo and Humbert, but before
they could do much damage with it, they were arrested, and Bolo has
already been executed.
[Illustration: THE COHALAN-IRISH REVOLUTION MESSAGE]
[Illustration: Above is the code message from Von Papen’s office
in New York to Bernstorff, transmitting a message from Justice
Cohalan, of the Supreme Court of New York, advising the Germans
upon the best means to make Sir Roger Casement’s revolution in
Ireland a success. On page 155 is the message written out and coded
for transmission. In English it reads as follows: “No. 335--16
_very secret_ New York, April 17, 1916. Judge Cohalan requests the
transmission the following remarks: ‘The Revolution in Ireland
can only be successful if supported from Germany. Otherwise,
England will be able to suppress it, even though it be only after
hard struggles. Therefore, help is necessary. This should consist
primarily of aërial attacks in England and a diversion of the
fleet simultaneously with Irish revolution. Then, if possible, a
landing of troops, arms, and ammunition in Ireland, and possibly
some officers from Zeppelins. This would enable the Irish ports to
be closed against England and the establishment of stations for
submarines on the Irish coast, and the cutting off of the supply
of food for England. The success of the revolution may therefore
decide the war.’ He asks that a telegram to this effect be sent to
Berlin. 5132 8167 0230 _To His Excellency Count von Bernstorff,
Imperial Ambassador, Washington, D. C._”]
The Hindus in this country, who were plotting with the Germans the
revolution that should destroy the British rule in India, used two
systems for their secret messages. The first was this _substitution
cipher_:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 A B C D E F G
2 H I J K L M N
3 O P Q R S T U
4 V W X Y Z
The message, “Leave San Francisco” would be written, in this
cipher, as follows:
25 15 11 41 15 35 11 27 16 34 11 27 13 22 35 13 31
by giving each letter of the message the number to the left of it,
combined with the number above it.
The other system used by the Hindus was a _book code_. They agreed
upon a small English dictionary of a certain edition, and wrote
from it messages that were also groups of numbers, after this
fashion: 625-2-11 27-1-36 45-2-20 and so on. The first figure in
each group was the number of the page on which the word would be
found, the second figure gave the column, and the third figure was
the number of the word in the column, counting from the top of the
page.
But perhaps the most dramatic of all the intercepted messages
(except the Luxburg and Zimmerman notes, of which the story
cannot yet be told) were those which revealed the part played
by well-known Irish-American leaders in the ill-fated Casement
revolution in Ireland. The story of the Casement expedition is
too familiar to need to be retold. And comment upon the political
morals of Justice Cohalan and John Devoy becomes superfluous in the
light of these messages. American citizens (one of them signally
honoured with public office in New York), both held their Irish
blood superior, in their duty of loyalty, to the United States,
using their citizenship as a cloak under which to strike at Great
Britain, which has been for a quarter century the chief bulwark of
this country against Germany’s plan to conquer us and to impose
upon our country the most hateful tyranny in the history of the
world.