On the outbreak of the First World War, the Public Safety destroyed its archives to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Of its history during the war nothing is known. At the front a military intelligence service was founded in 1915 which conducted all the intelligence work and coordinated the activity of the resistance. Soon after the end of the war the rivalry between the Public Safety and its military counterpart, known today as the General Information and Security Service (ADIV/SGRS), would arise as both services' activities overlapped sometimes. The military intelligence service had been given the counterespionage mission, but after it was suspended in 1923 because of a scandal involving the Belgian occupation of the Rhineland, the Public Safety had to take over again. In 1929 an administrative reform made the alien police an independent department and the Public Safety was given the name it still has today: Security of the State (Veiligheid van de Staat/Sûrete de l'Etat).