vice-president of the Comité des forges. Although Pinot was committed and efficient, he had a tendency to take credit for the Committee's actions. He was an employee rather than an owner, and de Wendel made it clear he would only be the most junior of five vice-presidents, with no prospect of becoming president. During and immediately after the war there was tension within the UIMM when the engineering industry challenged the dominance of the Comité des forges, but the steel interests won the battle. The UIMM provided logistic support to the Confédération générale de la production française (CGPF), the general employers association, with the result that the CGPF was accused of being simply a puppet of the steel industry. In 1923 the Société d'études et d'informations économiques, formed by the Comité des forges, published studies by the economist Paul de Rousiers defending "good" agreements. In the 1930s the Comité des forges continued to publish the Bulletin de la société d'études et d'information, edited by Émile Mireaux then by Jacques Bardoux. During the 1930s, on many subjects it was hard to get agreement among the members. The interests of large firms often clashed with those of smaller firms, firms that produced for the state clashed with firms that wanted lower state spending and lower taxes, firms that consumed coal clashed with the coal mines. At times the Comité des forges was reduced to preparing alternative policy proposals for a single issue. Talking of meetings of the committee, one participant said "We splutter and argue, conversations go on for ever and everyone talks at the same time." The Comité des forges helped finance the right wing Faisceau, Redressement Français and Croix-de-Feu groups via intermediaries such as Pierre Pucheu. In 1936 Alexandre Lambert-Ribot, secretary general of the Comité des forges, signed the Matignon Agreements to end the general strike that followed election of the Popular Front. The Matignon Agreements forced a change in the leadership of the CGPF employer's organization, renamed the Confédération générale du patronat français (CGPF), but this was approved by the heavy industrialists, There were, for example, close links between Pierre Nicolle of the CGPF and François de Wendel. Dissolution Under the Vichy regime the Comité des forges was dissolved by decree on 9 November 1940. It was replaced by the Comité d'organisation de la sidérurgie (CORSID – Organizing Committee for the Iron and Steel Industry). The only member of