Germans -- United States; World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- Germany
Among the most interesting of these secret messages is the series
of wireless telegrams by means of which the German money was paid
to Bolo Pasha for the purchase of the Paris _Journal_--one of the
principal episodes in the treasonable intrigue for which Bolo was
recently executed by a French firing squad. These messages were in
English, and meant exactly what they said, except for the proper
names and the figures, which were _code_. To decode them, it was
necessary only to make the following substitutions:
William Foxley = Foreign Office
Charles Gledhill = Count Bernstorff
Fred Hooven = Guaranty Trust Company (New York)
$500 = $500,000
and to all other figures add three ciphers to arrive at the real
amount. For example, one of these messages read: “Paid Charles
Gledhill five hundred dollars through Fred Hooven.” This meant:
“Paid Count Bernstorff five hundred _thousand_ dollars through
Guaranty Trust Company.”
[Illustration: BOLO’S HANDWRITING
A letter written in New York to his bankers in transactions for the
purchase of the Paris _Journal_, with German money, the crime for
which he was shot]
The story of these messages is briefly this: Marie Paul Bolo
started life as a barber, became an adventurer and, in the
service of the Khedive of Egypt, received the title of Pasha for
a financial service which he rendered him. Returning to France
as Bolo Pasha, he married two wealthy women and lived in grand
style on their money. He became an intimate of Charles Humbert,
another adventurer, who achieved political power by questionable
methods and became a member of the French Senate. In the meantime,
the Khedive had been deposed by the British on account of his
pro-Turkish (and hence pro-German) activities after the Great War
began. Abbas Hilmi joined the colony of ex-rulers in Switzerland,
and there became a part of the German system of intrigue. He
received money from the Germans and, after he had deducted his
“squeeze” (which sometimes amounted to half the total), he paid
over the rest to Bolo, to be used by Bolo, Humbert, and ex-Premier
Caillaux in an effort to restore Caillaux to power and then to
further the propaganda for an early and hence inconclusive peace.
[Illustration: A TALE TOLD IN CABLEGRAMS
Code messages in the Bolo Pasha case, explained in the accompanying
pages]
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account