Referring to the fact that one of the principal objectives of the espionage service was to break the enemy's Naval code, Lt. Solbert told us of one incident, which i shall call
A CODE TRANSACTION
Lt. Solbert, learning of these instructions from one of his own agents in the German Embassy, decided to do something to decrease the pressure being put upon the German agents to procure a copy of the new Code.
Some weeks earlier an American submarine had been sunk in the North Sea and in the debris washed up on the Swedish shore was a copy o an old, obsolete Code Book. Solbert secured this book, had the cover and the first pages removed and new pages printed to substitute for them, these new pages carrying the name and date of the new Code, had a new cover put on, soaked the whole in water until it was all equally water soaked and discolored. He then planted this book in with the debris from the sunken submarine and arranged that it should be found by a German, who delivered it to the German Legation.
He was much interested to see copies of the cablegram from the German War Office (which his agent had obtained) announcing that the new Code had been secured, and that the fortunate finder had just been given a cross of some kind by the Fuehrer in person.
The War Office did not announce it when it eventually discovered that it had been made the victim of a clever hoax by someone in the U. S. Legation.