SECRET STATE MESSAGES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 150, 25 February 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

SECRET STATE MESSAGES.

HOW THEY ARE TRANSMITTED. Diplomatic messages between ono Government and another, or between Governments and their Embassies, are, of course, carefully safeguarded from prying eyes. They are handled only by the most trusted officials, and are dispatched in such a complicated code d eguise that even if they fell into improper hands it would be practically impossible to decipher a single word. At the same time, as a further pre* caution against codes being deciphered, the secret writing systems of governments are changed continually. Thus should an unfriendly person or Government come into possession of a key, in a short time that key would bo useless.

A note in diplomacy is always sent out by telegraphy and in code. Tho code system most coinmon'y used bv the Government involves tiie use of numerals, so that when a note is in cipher form the message consists of a series of figure groups which can only lie transcribed with the proper key. The use of various keys is understood by prc-arrangement between State Departments, Embassies, and Ministers to whom such communications are sent. 'I ho code copies themselves arc kept under lock and key, lor which the secretary of the Government Department ;s responsible.

Each State Department employs its own special code, which it sometimes supplements by private codes, held confidential in the service and prepared by it > own officers and experts. The War Department telegraph code is, of course, being continually revised. The Navy has its own code, and it is interesting to note that the Navy code book is weighted with lead, tlie Navy regulations charging an officer with the duty of casting it overboard in ease of capture. The holders of the War Department codes are bound to keep them 111 their personal possession night and day, and burn them leaf by leaf, or bury them, if circumstances so require.