ABSTRACT
Surely it would do no harm just this once. It was a significant decision, a surprise even, for a French government to unveil its policy on secret intelligence and hope for immediate public support. The precedents were few and far between, and had generally coincided with times of international crisis. They had also been quickly forgotten. The one possible exception was the remarkable moment when, during the Stresa Conference of April 1935, France’s short-lived and ill-fated prime minister Pierre-Etienne Flandin decided to show his hand. National secrecy had been laid on the negotiating table, and the incident remains etched on public memory.
