SECRET CODE-BOOK STOLEN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12282, 8 July 1914, Page 2

SECRET CODE-BOOK STOLEN.

EVIDENCE AT CO CRT-MART IA L. An ordinary svaman, Herbert Ernost Hutton. was convicted by a conrt-mar-tia! ;n Slu-ernes* recently of stealing a t-.inll'!■ *i!l signal book and making false statements. He \v:h also convicted of stealing a w.irc-h. raid was sentenced to roirr years' ],i-!);ll servitude. Evidence at the court-martial corroborated tile statement., that agents of a- foreign Power were active in the Afedway, and a question put by Captain M'Clintock, wlii) prosecuted. indicated tliat the Queen's flotilla code. which was stolen by Hutton. was not the only secret signal book missing.

Jfutton was closely cross-examined regarding a statement he made w'Tiile in the Blenheim. He denied that he was serving in that ship, but admitted that lie was in the Bulldog, to which the Blenheim was parent ship. "Did j"ou say to one of your fillipmates in the Queen," said Captain M'Clintock, "that if questioned about the signal book you would replv '1 don't know,' and 'No,' as yon did in the -case of the Blenheim ?'' 'T never made the statement to anyone," replied Hutton. Remarkable facts concerning the Queen were disclosed by witnesses. It was stated that at one time" a fiignalboy was in sole occupation of the signalbridge." There was repeated evidence, that watches were not kept; that there were duplicate keys of the signal code-boolt. and not one of these a master key, and that one of these keys was lost, necessitating the prising open of the box to inspect the signal-book, whicli was loft for 36 hours in the open Ikix. An officer admitted that lie did not always open the signal-book to look inside it when it was brought to him for' inspection at the end of a wateli.

In the copy of Miss Weston's book, "My Life Arhonp Sailors," which- was substituted for the missing signal code book in the official cover, Hutton had, as he admitted before the court-mar-tial, written only a few days before the loss was discovered the words, "For tlie sake of the money I love."

One of the remarks attributed to Hutton by -a shipmate was that the missing signal-book "went over on the Flushing that day," meaning Febrnary 23. It is now known that counter espionage agents had under observation a man who posed as a naval officer, and that this man crossed over on the Flushing boat from Queensborough pier on February 23.