In 1911 he told the departmental council (""conseil général"") for Finistère (whose members included Albert Louppe that on 20 March 1907, eight days before the Iéna disaster, he had addressed a letter to Gaston Thomson, the government minister with responsibility for the navy, highlighting problems with several consignments of "Powder B", identifying the officials to be singled out for questioning and spelling out the threats to the navy.