tatements charging the Communists
and the Popular Front with being responsible for the outrages and
accusing them of planning a reign of terror to seize control of
France. The accusations left a profound effect upon the French people
despite the Communists' assertions that they never countenance
terrorism. The _Surete Nationale_, the French Scotland Yard, opened an
intensive investigation which was spurred on by the deaths of the
unfortunate gendarmes. It was not long before the French people heard
of the almost incredibly fantastic plot to destroy the Popular Front
and establish fascism in France--a plot directed by leading French
industrialists and high army officers cooperating with secret agents
of the German and Italian Governments.

The ramifications of the plot are so packed with dynamite in the
national and international arena that the French government, under
pressure from England as well as from some of its own industrialists,
government officials and army officers, has clamped the lid down on
further disclosures lest continued publicity seriously affect the
delicate balance of international relations.

It was obvious from what the police uncovered that it had taken
several years to organize the gigantic conspiracy. Within the teeming
city of Paris itself, steel and concrete fortresses had been secretly
built. Other cities throughout France were similarly ringed in
strategic places. Every one of these secret fortresses was stocked
with arms and munitions, and throughout the country, once the
confessions began, the police found thousands upon thousands of rifles
and pistols, millions of cartridges, hundreds of machine guns and
sub-machine guns. The fortresses themselves were fitted with secret
radio and telephone stations for communication among themselves. Code
books and evidence of arms-running from Germany and Italy were found.
A vast espionage network and a series of murders were traced to this
secret organization whose official name is the "Secret Committee for
Revolutionary Action." At their meetings they wore hoods to conceal
their identity from one another, like the Black Legion in the United
States, and the press promptly named them the "Cagoulards" ("Hooded
Ones").

Just how many members the Cagoulards actually have is unknown except
to its Supreme Council and probably to the German and Italian
Intelligence Divisions. Lists of names totaling eighteen thousand men
were turned up by the _Surete Na