After the
Allied victory in WWI, the leaders of the US, UK and France imposed harsh peace terms
on the defeated Germans. Germany (and the other defeated Central Powers)
had to make reparations to the Allied countries.
The problem
was that the payments that the German government was supposed to make were so
great that they would bankrupt the country. Due to German unwillingness and
inability to service the payments the Allies resorted to military measures such
as the occupation
in 1923 of the Ruhr industrial area.
In order to
defuse the situation and find a realistic solution to the reparations problem
the Dawes Plan was
implemented. Allied troops would leave the Ruhr area and the German government
would resume payments, after receiving a US loan that would revitalize the
German economy.
In Germany
the Allied representative responsible for monitoring the German compliance with
the Dawes plan was mr Seymour Parker
Gilbert and his official title was Agent
General for Reparations by the Allied Reparations Commission.
It seems that
the German government closely monitored Gilbert’s communications and was able
to solve some of his encrypted traffic to New York (Federal Reserve bank),
Paris and Rome.
Documents of
the German Foreign Ministry’s decryption department Pers Z, captured at the end
of WWII, show that his messages were solved by the German codebreakers:
Source: TICOM report DF-15 ‘Reports of
Group A’ (US National archives - RG 457)
Additional
information: Gilbert’s 1927
report.
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