Page:Mexico's dilemma.djvu/120

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100
MEXICO'S DILEMMA

entitled to the use of its code. The secret document was filed with the American authorities and for an indefinite period—the authorities are not quite certain how long—this German bank and the German Consul in Tampico sent and received secret messages to and from the United States. The practice was not interrupted until Consul Dawson returned to his post.

Of course it required considerable faith on the part of Herr Eversbusch in the inability of the United States to discover such an obvious scheme at deception; but in this faith in Uncle Sam's advertised laxity the German official was disappointed. He was found out and this line of communication was cut, as have been most of the lines between German agents throughout the world and the Berlin Government.

I cite this instance to show that, though Germany has planted and selected her secret-service operators in every country on the globe, the Allied and American Secret Service offensive against the lines of communication between enemy spies and their Berlin headquarters has been so successful that one may, for the first time during the war, speak of the checkmating of the enemy's intelligence service. Battles in the air have been more spectacular, those on land more intense, and those on the seas more baffling than the secret battles between the belligerent intelligence departments; but few have been more important. What, for instance, could be more important, so far as the