for protection on the basis of the importance of the iron and steel industry to national defense and the difficulty it faced in competing with foreign firms that had lower costs and greater access to skilled labor. The Comité des forges included engineering firms that purchased steel and were not in favor of high duties, but Pinot managed to maintain solidarity through a complex system of cartels and syndicates. World War I During World War I Pinot had great influence. During the war the government used Pinot and the staff of the Comité des forges to control import of metals and their distribution to manufacturers, and to give out contracts for armaments. In effect the Committee had been given a monopoly over supply of armaments. Later, the Ministry of Armaments under Albert Thomas would have difficulty controlling heavy industry. Pinot testified to the Senate Committee of Economic Expansion on 28 October 1915, saying that the return of Lorraine to France with its rich iron deposits would increase the amount of coal and coke that France had to import. However, if France also obtained access the coal deposits of the Saar the country could double its steel production and rival Germany. He advocated annexation of the Saar. The goal of the Comité des forges was not to expand at all costs, but to minimise the shock caused by the recovery of Lorraine. Pinot wanted to avoid competition with Germany for coal and coke after the war, and to avoid competition for markets. He was therefore in favour of German firms retaining partial ownership of assets in Lorraine, a position that was seen as treachery by small businesses and others who wanted to ruin Germany so France could become an uncontested economic leader. When censorship was relaxed after World War I (1914–18) there were bitter complaints against the Comité des forges within and outside Parliament. It was said that the Comité des forges had allowed France to fall behind in industrialization before the war, and had colluded with the army to prevent bombing of the French steel works in the Briey region that had been taken by the Germans early in the war. As general secretary Robert Pinot defended himself and the steel masters, but the suspicion lingered and the Comité des Forges was attacked by the Left throughout the years that followed. Post-war In August 1917 Pinot had written to the