WAR-TIME SECRETS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10476, 5 January 1928, Page 5

WAR-TIME SECRETS

GERMAN REPLY TO “ROOM FORTY.”

DiISGOVERED BRITISH CODE FIRST NIGHT AFTER CHANGE

ALLEGED MISLEADING ‘ NEWS FOR JUTLAND.

(United Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, Jan. 3. “The Times' ” Berlin correspondent states that, following' • Sir A. Ewing’s disclosures ofi the secrets of “Room 40,” an ex-wireless officer, Li eut’.-Oom nxi oder Krnsclnftzki, in an article in the Vissiclie Zeitung regarding the German department corresponding to “Room 40,” says it was housed in a mysterious barbed wire wireless station on a lonely moor in Neu monster.

Astonishing achievements were recorded, but it was long before , the officers’ responsible for naval ciphers; learned the obvious lesson that their discovery of the British code key on the first night after the monthly change implied that the British could discover the- German key with equal ease, especially since it was much simpler- than the British, even if the British had not secured it from German submarines sunk in shallow coastal waters. Nevertheless, the, German keys were unaltered for months, and even, if, German wireless operators forgot to secure the new signal when •it eventually was changed they could work it out from the first message received. Only in 1916 was a new faultless code book issued, and the kev thereafter changed daily. The British knew the Dogger Bank plans beforehand, but at Jutland Germany changed the long-standing wireless'call signals, substituting the flagships for that of Wilhelmshaven land station. The British concluded that tlie flagships were still in -harbor and only Cruisers at sea. The trick was not realised until the'cruiser Southampton reported that the German main fleet, was in view. Times.