Evening star., 1947-06-30
Plot 10 0verturn
French Republic
Is Uncovered
AT Least One General
Declared Involved in
Dictatorship PIon
BY the Associated Press

Minister EdOuard DepreuX an
nounced today the discovery of
a very widespread" plot by an
organization know as the Black
Maquis to overthrow the French
Republic and set up military
dictatorship.
Mr.. DepreuX said Gen. Guillaudot.
inspector general of the French
gendarmerie; Maj. Jean Loustau-
neau-LaCau, a rightist resistance
leader who before the war acknowl-
edged that he was a member of the
anti-republican Cagoulards thooded
ones, and other officers and civil
lians had been arrested.
A usually reliable semiof1cial
source said earlier that four French
generals and several civilians had
been implicated.
The government-oper French
Press Agency said the soul of the
plot" was reported to be former
officer and friend Of EX-Marshal
Henri Philippe Petain. now con-
fined for life at the Isle d'Yeu at
a traitor. The agency did not iden-
tify this man by name.
Mr.. DepreuX told a news confer
ence that whole units of the French
Army might have been involved.
Discovered Late in 1916.
He said first details of the clan
destine organization of former right
wing resistance leaders, monarchists
and Vichy collaborationists became
known to French police forces late
in 1916 from police informers.
Through undercover investigation
Mr.. DepreuX continued police un-
covered numerous details.
He said the Black Maquis had
drawn up a complete blue plan"
for first filling Frenchmen with feal
of Communist putsch'' and then
stepping in to set up a provisional
of military leaders, pat
termed along totalitarian lines. The
Maquis were French underground
fighters during the war
M. Depreux held a long confer
ence this morning with Premier
Paul Ramadier concerning the pur-
ported conspiracy.
French Press Agency dispatches
from Rennes, in Brittany, named
NJ. De Vulpian, AZ, editor of the
weekly France Vivante and presl-
dent of a veterans organization, as
among those arrested, together with
Marc Jacquot, wine merchant of
and the rector of the
abbey at Lamballe, in Brittany,
identified only as Rault.
Identified as Count.
Mr.. Depreux confirmed the arrest
of all three Of these persons and
identified De Vulpian as count.
De Vulpian was brought to Paris
last Wednesday and signed a state
ment duplicating himself and
Guillaudot in the affair, the min
lister said.
He said Guillaudot was questioned
at once, but was not taken into GUS
tody until he allegedly acknowledged
that he knew about the Black
Maquis organization, and had had
some relations with nearly every
person implicated
Also arrested last night, Mr.. De-
preuX said, was Nine. de Waleff, a
widow in whose Paris apartment
a large quantity of gold was found
He said she had been given pro-
visional liberty because of her ad-
vanced age. Police learned nearly
al of the meetings of the pur-
ported conspirators were held in
her apartment and that Gen. Gull
laudot was present at all of them,
the minister declared.
Ruled Out by De Gaulle.
He said some of the persons held
had tried to enroll in Gen. Charles
de Gaulle's French Peoples Rally
CRPFD. but had been refused ad-
mittance.
He said the organization even
published clandestine newspaper,
lie Reseau (The Network. Copies
Of it we're seized in such widely
separated sections as Lamballe in
Brittany, Agen in Southern France
and Dijon in the East
I'VE intend to push our inves-
tigation to its final conclusion, no
matter how important a parsonage
Is found to be involved" Mr.. De-
preuX declared.
The Minister said the blue
plan" stipulated that civil war must
be started in France. The plotters
said they had reason to believe
that armored units of the French
Army in Brittany and some un-
specified troops from the army of
occupation in Germany would
march on Paris from the east. Mr.
Depreux went on.
He said officials of the war and
interior ministries were investigat-
ing those units now.
Attack on Prison Signal.
The signal for opening the civil
war was to be an attack on Vannes
Prison in Southwestern Brittany
where persons accused of wartime
(See PLOT. Page A-2J