regular meetings and sought to train its members in skills necessary for revolution, which included training in firearms, learning military tactics, as well as organising the publication of revolutionary literature. It also sent recruits other countries and, after training, some were sent back to India to carry on propaganda work Acharya himself at this time learnt printing and engraving, and after sometime, was sent to Berlin along with V.V.S Iyer, where they were met by Champakaraman Pillai, who headed and Indian revolutionary group there. Observing Pillai's work, Acharya and Iyer suggested to the Paris Indian Society that their work by expanded beyond the work of the Paris publication. Accordingly, with funds from Madam Cama, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya was sent to Berlin to begin publication of the Talvar. The National fund scheme was initiated of which Madam Cama was the biggest contributor with (then) 5,000 Francs. The funds were strictly regulated to fund revolutionary activities in India, as well as fund Savarkar's trial. First World War In the meantime, work on Bande Mataram and other publications continued unabated. These were shipped by Acharya to India through contacts in Pondicherry, and at times under false covers including those of The Pickwick Papers. V.V.S. Iyer later returned to India, where he began training the Indian underground movement on explosives and bombs. On 17 June 1911, a young Indian revolutionary by the name of Vanchi Iyer fatally shot Robert D'escourt Ashe at Tirunelveli. Ashe had been a district collector who had earned notoriety for himself for his role in suppression of nationalist agitation and Swadeshi movement in 1908. Vanchi himself had learnt to shoot from Iyer in Pondicherry. The 1918 sedition committee report blamed Acharya for instigating, organising and planning the assassination. In 1911, Acharya arrived in Istanbul on the Paris Indian society's directions to seek Turkish help for Indian movement. Turkey and Persia had already been a centre for revolutionary activities by groups led by Sardar Ajit Singh and Sufi Amba Prasad who had worked there since 1909. The recruits to these groups included young nationalists of the likes of Rhishikesh Letha, Zia-ul-Haq, and Thakur Das. By 1910, the activities of these groups and their publication, the Hayat, had been noticed by British intelligence. Reports as early as 1910 indicated German efforts to unite Turkey and Persia and proceed to Afghanistan to threaten British India. However, Ajit Singh's departure in 1911 brought the Indian