But enough was done to show the great danger which would have resulted to the community, had a newspaper trust been successfully created on the scale contemplated, but fortunately never carried out, by the infamous Bolo Pasha and his associates. Their own journal, _Le Bonnet Rouge_, even when increased during the war from a weekly to a daily issue, was not by any means sufficient for their needs, although that traitorous sheet alone was able to do a great deal of mischief. But their control was extended to the _Journal_, a paper, prior to the war, of considerable circulation and influence. Their attempts to expand further were in full swing when, thanks to the work of MM. Léon Daudet and Barrès in the _Action_ _Française_, and still more to that of their bitter opponent Clemenceau in _l'Homme Enchaîné_ and in the Senate, the French Government was forced to arrest the proprietors of the _Bonnet Rouge_ and put them on their trial as traitors. It was known that M. Caillaux and M. Paix-Séailles--the latter connected with M. Painlevé's Cabinet and the repository of anti-French confidences--had contributed considerable sums to the support of the incriminated paper. When M. Almereyda, one of the most important persons connected with the _Bonnet Rouge_ (to whose columns a leading Socialist was a contributor) died suddenly in prison, the editor of that journal telegraphed to M. Caillaux concerning the lamentable departure of "our friend." As these facts were accompanied by other revelations still more compromising, public opinion became greatly excited. There could be no doubt that the conspiracy was more than a mere anti-patriotic newspaper intrigue of financial origin, or an attempt of discredited politicians to float themselves back into office on the wave of discouragement and defeatism: it was an endeavour, supported throughout by German funds, to destroy French confidence in order to ensure French destruction. A complete exposure of the whole plot, in which M. Caillaux and Bolo Pasha were alleged to be the leading figures, was threatened in the course of the _Bonnet Rouge_ trial. Eleven members of the Army Committee of the Senate were appointed to consider M. Caillaux's connection with M. Almereyda and the _Bonnet Rouge_. M. Caillaux has been by far the most formidable advocate of a German peace from the first. That an ex-Premier of France should take up such a position would seem almost incredible, but that Signor Giolitti in Italy and Lord Lansdowne in England have pursued the same course in a less objectionable way. The political relations between Clemenceau and M. Caillaux in the years prior to the war had not been unfriendly. M. Caillaux had been Finance Minister in Clemenceau's Cabinet in 1907, and they had both worked together for M. Pams against M. Poincaré in the contest for the Presidency. But two more different personalities it would be difficult to find.