rds is a Supreme War Council or General Staff
whose members have not been disclosed. Working with them are several
other organizations, all with innocent names, as for example the
"Society of Studies for French Regeneration." The Cagoulards'
activities are divided into broad general lines, each directed by an
individual in complete command and embracing:

Buying war materials within France and smuggling war materials into
the country from Germany, Italy and Insurgent Spain, along with the
simultaneous weaving of an espionage network under Nazi and fascist
direction and leadership.

Building concrete fortresses at strategic centers and storing smuggled
arms in them.

Military training of secretly organized troops.

Getting the money to carry on these extensive activities.

Extreme care was, and still is, taken to conceal the identities of the
ordinary members and especially the leaders. For instance, one of the
leaders known to his subordinates as "Fontaine" is in reality Georges
Cachier, director of a large company in Paris and chief of the
Cagoulards' "Third Bureau," which is in charge of military movements.
Cachier is an Officer of the French Legion of Honor and a reserve
Lieutenant-Colonel in the French Army.

The Cagoulards are still very active. Members are being recruited with
leaders pointing out to the fearful ones that there is nothing to
worry about--almost all of those arrested in the early days of the
investigation are free, out on bail or kept in a "gentleman's
confinement" where they can do virtually as they please. "Our power is
great," new members are told.

As is customary in secret terrorist societies, the members are sworn
to silence with death as the penalty for indiscretion. The penalty
when it is employed is usually administered in American gangster
fashion. Each member is allotted to a "cell," the basic unit of the
military organization, and assigned to a secretly fortified post for
training. One of these posts discovered by the _Surete Nationale_ was
in an old boarding house run by two ancient spinsters with equally
ancient guests who spent their time in rockers, knitting and reading
and not dreaming that underneath the porch on which they sat so
tranquilly was a fortress with enough explosives to blow the whole
street to smithereens. Into this particular fortification, the cell
members would steal one by one after the old maids had retired,
entering by a concealed door three feet thick