IntroductionIntroductionThis is a rather long table showing an actual Swedish diplomatic cable in an unordered code used in the early 1930-ies. I have added a word-for-word English translation for the benefit of the not-so-fluent-in-scandinavian reader.
The cable originally occurs in the book Chiffer - En bok om litterära och historiska hemligskrifter (Cipher - A book on literary and historic secret writings) by Rickard Sandler. Mr Sandler - once a member of the Swedish Parliament - volunteered in the spring of 1936, to check on the secrecy afforded by the Swedish diplomatic code then in use between the Foreign Office in Stockholm and the embassy in Rome. It was suspected that the code could suffer from the publication of an official book on the Italian bombardement of a Swedish Red Cross ambulance in Abyssinia (nowadays Ethiopia), whose contains was based on the cabletraffic between Stockholm and Rome.
The Italians fought a war in Ethiopia at that time - for reasons hard to understand today - and we Swedes had sent humanitary help, which the Italians didn't like at all.
Mr Sandler managed to match a great deal of the codegroups with their cleartext meaning, using the official book on the bombardement and the coded cables, and the code was put out of use.
Here's the cable with added decode in Swedish and English:
|
53608 |
04628 |
08653 |
04561 |
31264 |
48730 |
05372 |
|
|
Su- |
vi- |
ch |
som |
jag |
på |
dennes |
|
|
Suvich (personal name) |
whom |
I |
on |
this ones |
|||
|
39816 |
26517 |
13089 |
35046 |
29173 |
13950 |
38795 |
|
|
begäran |
idag |
besökt |
meddelade |
(imperf.) |
att |
general |
|
|
request |
today |
visited |
did inform |
(past tense) |
that |
general |
|
|
03124 |
16980 |
40798 |
37049 |
17428 |
37904 |
53940 |
|
|
Gr- |
az- |
ia- |
ni |
telegraferat |
följande |
(cit.tn) |
|
|
Graziani (personal name) |
cabled |
the following |
(quote) |
||||
|
54302 |
27860 |
45193 |
18529 |
21783 |
34719 |
03984 |
|
|
Såsom |
represalier |
för att |
abessinierna |
(plur.) |
st- |
ymp- |
|
|
As |
reprisals |
because |
the Abyssinians |
(plural) |
(stympat=) had mutilated |
||
|
04987 |
34879 |
17956 |
43071 |
09168 |
34879 |
23716 |
|
|
at |
italienska |
fångar |
(plur.) |
hade |
italienska |
flyga- |
|
|
Italian |
prisoners |
(plural) |
had |
Italian |
(flygare=) |
||
|
43658 |
18640 |
39820 |
18529 |
50437 |
43071 |
40239 |
|
|
re |
i dagarna |
bombarderat |
abessinska |
trupper |
(plur.) |
(punkt) |
|
|
airmen |
in recent days |
bombarded |
Abyssinian |
troops |
(plural) |
(period) |
|
|
27680 |
09168 |
12043 |
26749 |
40936 |
08367 |
37201 |
|
|
Bl.a. |
hade |
man |
i |
trakten |
av |
Co- |
|
|
Amongst other |
had |
"they" |
in |
vicinity |
of |
||
|
48573 |
43981 |
39820 |
17483 |
18975 |
49581 |
23046 |
|
|
go- |
ru |
bombarderat |
militär- |
befälhavare |
Ras |
Des |
|
|
Cogoru (place name) |
bombarded |
military |
commander |
Ras Desta's |
|||
|
13746 |
31405 |
51026 |
27153 |
13807 |
10289 |
46591 |
|
|
tas |
kvarter |
vilket |
förlagts |
(imperf.) |
i |
omedelbar |
|
|
quarters |
which |
had been placed |
past tense |
in |
immediate |
||
|
40586 |
08367 |
35067 |
02931 |
31694 |
07432 |
41269 |
|
|
närhet |
av |
en |
svensk |
ambulans |
(punkt) |
Det |
|
|
vicinity |
of |
a |
Swedish |
ambulance |
(period) |
It |
|
|
15074 |
13807 |
04561 |
18057 |
03549 |
49836 |
49086 |
|
|
föreföll |
(imperf.) |
som |
en |
bomb |
exploderat |
(bländare) |
|
|
appeared |
(past tense) |
as [if] |
a |
bomb |
had exploded |
(dummy) |
|
|
40318 |
28467 |
31694 |
29640 |
19804 |
26458 |
20465 |
|
|
invid |
denna |
ambulans |
och |
såra- |
t |
Hy- |
|
|
beside |
this |
ambulance |
and |
injure- |
d |
||
|
51980 |
36450 |
32059 |
29864 |
10498 |
08752 |
13054 |
|
|
lan- |
der |
(slut citat) |
Sedan |
jag |
framfört |
(sup.) |
|
|
Hylander (personal name) |
(end quote) |
When |
I |
had delivered |
(past tense) |
||
|
17924 |
29641 |
07298 |
52901 |
01354 |
19386 |
13950 |
|
|
sv. regeringens |
anhållan |
enl. tgm. |
50 |
lovade |
S |
att |
|
|
the Swedish Government |
request |
according to telegram no. |
50 |
promised |
S |
that |
|
|
15364 |
30952 |
46980 |
35089 |
51392 |
02451 |
10476 |
|
|
omedelbart |
delgiva |
mig |
de |
ytterligare |
informationer |
han |
|
|
immediately |
share with |
me |
the |
further |
informations |
he |
|
|
39471 |
30154 |
12953 |
16542 |
08739 |
46980 |
18349 |
|
|
kunde |
erhålla |
(punkt) |
Han |
bad |
mig |
varna |
|
|
could |
gain |
(period) |
He |
asked |
me |
warn |
|
|
17924 |
15476 |
02374 |
24691 |
02654 |
40359 |
07639 |
|
|
sv. regeringen |
för |
att |
tro |
på |
meddelande |
från |
|
|
the Swedish Government |
for |
to |
believe |
in |
messages |
from |
|
|
18529 |
09821 |
||||||
|
abessinskt |
håll |
||||||
|
Abyssinian |
side |
||||||