The German sympathies of _Je Suis Partout_ were apparent enough, but no one bothered much about it, for circulation was low and the paper’s influence was considered to be negligible. This must have been the viewpoint of the Daladier government also, for except for friendly arguments with the censors, the paper was able to continue publishing unhampered even after the war broke out. When Daladier resigned and Paul Reynaud came in, he appointed Georges Mandel Minister of the Interior, and thus head of the French police organization. Although Mandel, zealous, patriotic, and uncompromising, like his master Clemenceau whose secretary he had been during the last war, undertook to hunt down defeatists of all descriptions, _Je Suis Partout_ continued to appear as usual. Mandel also apparently considered it too insignificant to be dangerous. But one day a well-known French journalist brought to Mandel the proof that the principal members of the editorial staff of _Je Suis Partout_ were simultaneously agents of the Deuxième Bureau. Mandel was astounded. He who knew all the undercurrents of French political life, who for years had kept secret files about all public figures, had not dreamed that any connection could have existed between this outspokenly pro-German magazine and one of the most influential departments of the French Army. He had put the editors of _Je Suis Partout_ down as innocuous fools. He now realized that though the circulation of the paper was small, the private influence of its editors might have been both great and disastrous. He did not hesitate an instant. He ordered immediately the arrest of five members of the staff. Among them was an obscure journalist, not generally known as a member of the staff, named Pierre Mouton, who some years before had founded a small press syndicate called _Prima Presse_ in partnership with Ferdonnet. Mandel quickly obtained proof that the two men were still cooperating. Mouton, while maintaining permanent contact with _Je Suis Partout_, was also flooding the French daily press with cleverly prepared pro-German articles which were supplied to the newspapers free of charge. With the known leaders of the _Je Suis Partout_ group in jail, Mandel apparently thought that there was no immediate urgency for delving further into this particular case when so many other vital matters pressed for attention. The same attitude had been taken a few years before in regard to the Cagoulards, who seemed to have been set down as definitely muzzled because their figureheads had been imprisoned. Neither the stern and Spartan Mandel, who had arrested the _Je Suis Partout_ group, nor the vivacious and epicurean Albert Sarraut, his predecessor, who had handled the Cagoulard case, imagined that either of these two groups had achieved a real and lasting penetration into the high command--a penetration which seems to have contributed largely to the debacle of May and June.