NAZIS’ PIGEON POST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 13 November 1939, Page 7

NAZIS’ PIGEON POST

U-BOATS IN CARIBBEAN

CONTACT WITH MEXICO

MESSAGES IN CODE

(Reed. Nov. 13, 9 a.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 11

Tlie New York Times’ Mexico City correspondent states that the first positive evidence that German submarines in the Caribbean are communicating with agents in Mexico came when a carrier pigeon fell exhausted near Mexico City. An Indian retrieved it and it eventually reached representatives of the Allied Powers, who found a tube attached to its leg containing three pieces of paper.

One was a cutting from a German newspaper, •in the margin of which was written the date October 17. the time 4 a.m.. and the position, latitude and longitude, roughly 15 miles off the mouth of the Panuco River. The cutting did not mention the war but it is thought that it may have a code meaning. The writing is believed to indicate a rendezvous by a submarine with Mexican refuelling agents.

The second piece of paper carried by file bird was a yellow tissue on which was written UZ 69, apparently representing a submarine, and a German phrase which, translated means: “Salute to distant and pretty Mexico.” It is signed “Lenz, superior captain in the navy.”

The third find was a white sheet at the top of which the letters JU are repeated three times. The remainder is blank. This is believed to contain writing in invisible ink.

The investigators are attempting to use the pigeon to discover whither it was headed when it fell.