File No. 811.741/160
The Secretary of the Navy (Daniels) to the Secretary of State
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April 21, 1915, with reference to the transmission of messages in cipher between the German Ambassador and his Government via [Page 887] the Tuckerton radio station, and also to acknowledge the receipt of the two copies of the key to the code which will be used.
A copy of this key has been delivered to the censor at Tuckerton, and messages received from the German Embassy through your Department are being forwarded in due course.
The following procedure, which I understand meets with your approval, is being followed in handling messages of this class:
Outgoing messages are received from the State Department accompanied by a translation in English they are then transmitted in code to the censor at Tuckerton, who deciphers, paraphrases, enciphers, and transmits the paraphrased message in code to Germany. At the same time the censor forwards to this Department a copy of his translation of the message for comparison with the translation received from the German Embassy.
In the case of incoming messages the censor deciphers the code words, censors the message, and, if he finds nothing objectionable, paraphrases, enciphers, and forwards the message by land wire in code to the German Ambassador, at the same time forwarding a copy of his translation to this Department in order that the contents of each message may be made known to your Department. In case the censor is in any doubt as to the neutral character of any incoming message he will forward it through this Department, and it will be referred to your Department for an opinion as to whether it should be allowed to go forward to the German Embassy.
Sincerely yours,