Quotes about Barnes in Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes

In the book Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes (ANU E Press, 2013) edited by Desmond Ball and Keiko Tamura, there are frequent references to Eric Barnes. We begin by quoting from the Introduction to Chapter 3. Japanese Diplomatic Cyphers: Cryptographic Survey Report Of Special Intelligence Section HQ Australian Military Forces Melbourne 1946.

1. From the Introduction to Chapter 3.

Work on Japanese diplomatic cyphers was first begun by the [Special Intelligence Section HQ Australian Military Forces in Melbourne] in December 1941 under the auspices of the Navy. During 1942, the staff consisted of only three cryptographers, but after the Section was taken over by the Army in November of that year, the technical staff was increased to deal with new cyphers. Professor A D Trendall of the University of Sydney was in charge of cryptography, assisted by Lieutenant R S Bond and Lieutenant E S Barnes. Mr C H Archer of the British Consular Service supervised the language and translation section, and on his return to England in December 1944, Mr R L Cowley was sent to replace him.
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Between 1943 and 1945, the Japanese introduced eight new cyphers - two transposition systems and six recyphering tables. The Section was the first to break the new Greater East Asia Ministry transposition cypher (GEAM) introduced in July 1943. The breaking of the Foreign Office transposition cypher (BA) followed soon afterwards, and the Section concentrated on working out the available keys, while London turned to the machining of traffic in the recyphering tables. Once London was able to establish preliminary facts about the recyphering tables, the Section contributed code-equivalents and many pages of the pads, although relying upon recovery by hand without any mechanical aid.

Approximately 90 per cent of traffic received in these cyphers was read.

2. Extracts from letters.

The book Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes (ANU E Press, 2013) edited by Desmond Ball and Keiko Tamura contains letters between people who worked at Special Intelligence Section HQ Australian Military Forces Melbourne during World War II. These letters date from the 1990s onwards when information was being sought for inclusion in the book. We give some quotes which mention Eric Barnes.

2.1. David Sissons to Ian Smith 3 August 1990

What was your system of filing past messages? Perhaps a ritual that we indulged in from time to time is part of the explanation. All hands were called to the pumps and, like some card game, Bond dealt each of us a hand. He then started to read aloud a series of numbers which we each tried to follow in the document before us. Frequently this would get out of hand, one would find oneself lost and shout out 'I'm off the rails'. Whereupon Bond and Barnes would become furious. What was this all about?

2.2. Ian Smith to David Sissons 8 August 1990

I fear you will have a difficult task, if the records of that diplomatic section have been destroyed. I have a clear memory of participating in the composition of an archive sometime in the spring or early summer of 1945. Eric Barnes was in charge of this operation, I think, and it was well done. Description of the codes and the work done, and, I think, the files containing each weekly report put together by the head translator.
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Eric Barnes finished his career at the University of Adelaide, but I have not seen him for about 10 years (he was at a conference in Hobart) he was then fascinated by his war work and used to give talks on cryptography, he was also familiar with modern cryptography (it sounded diabolically sophisticated and is in great demand for computer security).
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Though I worked on an equal footing with Eric Barnes (of course I had nothing like his creative talents), I did not really see what happened in the actual administering of the department.
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By early 1945, or perhaps before, Eric Barnes had discovered the secret of the indicator. This was the second 5-figure group. The third group (first of the actual message) was subtracted from this and the result was the cipher-book reference in clear, page reference, column, line. I cannot remember how he hit on this, but he had brilliant intuitions. From then on the messages were read using the same method as the Japanese cipher clerks.
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To what extent our section was responsible for actual breakthroughs I am not sure. At some stage (before Smith) someone must have noticed the even-odd pattern in 10101 messages using the same passage of the cipher-book (the occurrence of the same code-group with the same cipher-group would have given sufficient "depth" of messages to see this), but who was it - London, Washington, Eric Barnes? - I do not know. Did Melbourne break BA through the unwise repeat? I think so but cannot swear it. Eric Barnes certainly solved the 10101 indicator problem.

2.3. Notes by Ronald Bond

Trendall went back to Sydney University on 13th March 1943 (the day my commission came through). He returned in July/August (?) 1943, when the great change arrived and we had come to a grinding halt. Trendall sent me home to Sydney for a short break. I was more than a little tired, as Eric Barnes (who had arrived in late February (?), early March) and I were the only people in the diplomatic cryto section during the period March/July '43.
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Sissons is not correct in assuming that Treweek recruited Barnes. It was I who mentioned Barnes to Trendall: When I was on leave at Xmas in 1942, I approached Eric in a roundabout way. It is more than likely that Professor Room had mentioned Barnes to Trendall. Eric had been dux of Canterbury Boys' High in 1939 and had graduated in December 1942 with firsts in French and Maths.

2.4. David Sissons to Desmond Ball

Earlier in the year I wrote to Eric Barnes (later Professor of Pure Maths and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Adelaide). I received an enthusiastic and most informative reply in which he was able to describe each of the codes the Section were reading from the time of his arrival in January 1943. In addition to the low grade ciphers LA and GEAM these were essentially: (i) the blanked columnar transposition, FUJI (the successor to TSU?), and its successor, BA; (ii) the numerical reciphered code, NE, and its successor, 10101. He also described the cryptological problems characteristic of each. He offered to answer any further questions that I wished to put to him.

In his letter, however, Barnes asked for my assurance that he was now free to discuss such matters under what he termed the 'Official Secrets Act'. I had no alternative but to indicate in my reply that I could not give such an assurance. I addressed some more questions to him but received no acknowledgment. This I can interpret only as meaning that he is not prepared to talk unless authorised.

Last Updated December 2025