PLOTTING IN FRANCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 38, 24 November 1937, Page 5

PLOTTING IN FRANCE.

ARMY OFFICERS INVOLVED. 2000 PERSONS SUSPECTED. (United Press Association—Copyright.) PARTS, November 22. Army officers are declared to be involved in the Cagoulard plot. The first hint of the plot is said to have come from Colonel de la Rocque, leader of the Croix de Feu, after the plotters had been active for at least three months. A Surete detective states that 2000 persons are under suspicion, and that 21 have been arrested and charged with illegal possession of arins. Several have been detained for questioning. All roads to Paris were closely watched during the week-end. ORGANISED ON ARMY LINES. CIVIL WAR AND DICTATORSHIP (Received This Day, 1.50 p.m.) PARIS, November 23. The anxiously-awaited official communique, issued to-night, declares that the Cagoulards (“Hooded Men”) planned to overthrow the Republic by civil war, and establish a dictatorship, and then restore the monarchy. The communique adds, “The searches have established that we are confronted by a secret military organisation entirely copying the lines of the army, comprising a general staff, command areas, divisions, brigades and regiments, showing that it has been designed for civil war.”