During the vigorous years of its youth Sinn Fein had not confined its propagandist activities to public meetings, the foundation of branches and the publication of a paper. The National Council of Sinn Fein had issued a series of "National Council Pamphlets" dealing with those aspects of Sinn Fein policy upon which the public seemed to require instruction. The first of these was a general exposition of the Sinn Fein policy by Mr. Griffith. Others were "The Purchase of the Railways," "England's Colossal Robbery of Ireland," a study of the financial relations between the two countries since the Act of Union, "Ireland and the British Armed Forces," "Constitutionalism and Sinn Fein" and "How Ireland is Taxed," an exposition of the fact (often ignored) that under the Union Ireland is the most heavily taxed country in Europe. Finally, in 1912, a pamphlet by Mr. Griffith, "The Home Rule Bill Examined," was a general review of the powers conferred and withheld by the Home Rule Bill and an examination of the real bearing of that measure upon the political and economic situation of Ireland. The increasing difficulties which attended the publication of a newspaper during the war, the increased demand for information upon the situation created by it, the increasing number of those who felt that they had something to say which required more space than could be afforded in a newspaper, led to a revival of the publication of pamphlets. Early in 1915 a series of "Tracts for the Times" was projected by the Irish Publicity League. The first of these was a tract "What Emmet means in 1915," significant of the direction in which minds were turning at the time. It was followed by "Shall Ireland be Divided?" an impassioned protest against the policy of partition and by "The Secret History of the Irish Volunteers" (which ran through several editions), an account by The O'Rahilly of the formation of the Volunteers, their policy, their attempts to secure arms and their relations with the Parliamentary Party. The traditional Sinn Fein view was enforced in "When the Government Publishes Sedition," an analysis of the official census returns, showing that under the Union the population of Ireland had been reduced by one-half, and in two pamphlets on "Daniel O'Connell and Sinn Fein" an attempt was made to commend the policy by an argument that O'Connell both in his methods and his aims was really a Sinn Feiner, and by an exposition ("How Ireland is Plundered") of the question of the Financial Relations in O'Connell's day and since. Other pamphlets were "What it Feels Like" on the prison experiences of the writer who had been imprisoned under the Defence of the Realm Act for his political activities, "Ascendancy While You Wait" and "Why the Martyrs of Manchester Died." During the same time the Cumann na mBan, the women's branch of the Irish Volunteers, added to their activities the publication of a "National Series" of pamphlets "Why