A network of contrôleurs civils overlays the…

A network of contrôleurs civils overlays the caids' administration throughout Tunisia after 1884, except in the extreme south.

There, because of the more hostile nature of the tribes and the tenuous hold of the central government, military officers, making up a Service des Renseignements (Intelligence Service), fulfill this duty.

Successive Residents-General, fearing the soldiers' tendency toward direct rule—which belies the official French myth that Tunisians continue to govern Tunisia—works to bring the Service des Renseignements under their control’; they will finally do so at the end of the century.