Pillai then established close contacts with the few Indians in Germany including Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, immediate younger brother of Sarojini Naidu, Bhupendranath Datta, younger brother of Narendranath DuttaSwami Vivekananda, M. Prabhakar, Raja Mahendra Pratap, who became the President of the exile Government of India in Afghanistan during the First World War of 1914–18 and the renowned expatriate Chempakaraman Pillai, from Thiruvananthapuram. Chempakaraman Pillai wrote "I am extremely pleased of your broadminded patriotic sentiments. I did not know you as such until I made your personal acquaintance." A. R. Pillai along with all these compatriots was imprisoned by the German Government on the ground that they were British subjects. However, they were later released when the few Indians there together formed the India Independence Committee in Berlin under the chairmanship of Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (referred, in short, as Chatto). """I assure you I have a great regard for you and a sincere feeling of comradeship especially since we are in the same boat. Please keep us informed of your literary activities... We must carry out the idea of a book on the National Movement on the lines I suggested", wrote Chatto. On the request of the India Independence Committee, A. R. Pillai regularly wrote and published articles condemning British Imperialism and canvassing support for India's struggle for freedom (see copies of letters below). He had also corresponded with veteran freedom fighters of other countries like Sir Roger Casement of Ireland, then under British rule, trying to make common cause for India's freedom struggle abroad. Sir Roger in his letter to A.R. Pillai said: "I can do more than thank you warmly for your letter and express my sincere and deep respect for all like you who set their country's cause above self interest."