The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Navy (Daniels)
Sir: With reference to the Executive order of September 5 last, by virtue of which the Tuckerton radio station has been turned over to the Government for the transmittal of code and cipher messages to land stations in Europe, I have the honor to inform you that the Department, is in receipt of a request from the Imperial German Ambassador for the privilege of using the Tuckerton station for the transmittal of code messages to his Government. The Department, after consultation with your Department, replied to the Ambassador’s request, that such messages between himself and his Government should be transmitted through this Department. Accordingly the Ambassador transmitted to the Department two [Page 886] copies of the key to the cipher which will be used in communications between himself and his Government. These copies have already been handed to the officers of your Department. The Ambassador has also sent two messages for transmittal via Tuckerton, copies of which have also been transmitted by hand to your Department.
In reply to an inquiry of this Department the Ambassador has expressed a desire that messages to and from his Government be telegraphed in code between Tuckerton and Washington, and not in plain English. A copy of the Embassy’s note on this point is enclosed for your information.1
Hereafter the Department will stamp and forward to your Department copies of these German Government messages for transmittal via Tuckerton in accordance with such regulations as your Department may issue under Executive order of September 5 last.
In this relation I have the honor to call attention to the confidential nature of the codes delivered to the Department by the German Embassy and the desirability of taking every precaution to maintain their secrecy.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩