A very complex arrangement of interlapping units which – like all intelligence units – tend to develop special allegiances.
The Secret Service as such is the top dog. I will not elaborate on that. Next in importance is the DST. (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire) of which Grenade is a member. This unit combines the function of what is, in Britain, the Special Branch with MI5.
Thirdly, there is the General Intelligence which holds the files of politicians and trade union leaders. It is comprised of two parts; one part overlaps with the Sûreté Nationale and the other with the Paris Police Prefecture.
The Sûreté Nationale also leads a life of its own and has all sorts of specialized departments – from gambling to the huge phone-tapping department. The Ministry of the Interior controls General Intelligence as well as having its own private intelligence unit rather like WOOC(P) except that while Dawlish is responsible to the Cabinet via the Prime Minister, the French Minister gets access to his reports before the President.
The military have their own intelligence networks which co-operate with the above departments now and again.
The lowest echelon of agent consists of the so-called barbouzes or semi-official informers, who often speed up a slow season by fomenting antigovernment plots in order to expose them.