THE SIX WISE MEN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 56, 29 November 1937, Page 13

THE SIX WISE MEN

Keepers of the Admiralty's Secrets FAMOUS "ROOM 40" Most closely-guarded men in London to-day aro six men at the Admiralty ,working in a room famous during thi Great War as "Eoom 40." They are the wireless operators witb ,all the secrets of the British Navy is (their ears. ■ Every minute of the day and night, naval stations send them information about the movements of ships. Through them a few days ago went such orders . • • Warships leave foi thb Mediterranean . . . Destroyera reinforce flotilla offi Spanish coast . . . As each mdve is rnade on the British naval chequer board tbese six men issue the commands to the ships concerned, keep in touch with them evfiry hour of the twenty-four. In their secret room each operator sits before a receiver, each of whicb police one of the six areas of the world — Cfeina, the Mediterranean, New Zealand, Africa, Australia, West Indies. Transmitter stations at Cleethorpes, on the East Coast, and on Horsey Island near Portsmouth, send Admiralty's orders to ships in these distant places. In their "hameless department distress signals are picked np, messages intercepted, codes decoded. Thongh the Admiralty is willing to admit there is such a room, and will even provide a little information aboiit it, no one is allowed to enter. It is on the top floor— and that is about all the Admiralty were anxious to say about it. "When an operator wants to get in touch with Hong Kong he taps out thfl call-sign to the station on Stonecutters Island," a signalling officer said. "When he hears 'K,' which is the eode word for 'go on,' he sends his mesrage. 'R' denotes xeceived, and 'IMI' when any part of the message must be repeated. "There is one strict rule here — and that is we allow no operators' b*ekchat. In some commercial services operators add pfivate messages of their own, such as 'GNOM,' for good-night, old man, ' TKS, ' for thanks. "We pick up all distress signals, and some of them are curiously worded. As English is the language of the seas,. ships of all nationalities send their distress signals in English. "We once picked up a message from a Greek ship which had come into collision with an Italian vessel off the Scilly Isles which rcad: 'Ship in my side, please attention. ' " But about the serious side of the operators' work, and of the secrefr messages which pass every minute through the radio room, the Admiralty would say nothing.