130 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
dustry framed a bill to be submitted to the Duma on vocational in- 
struction for disabled men at government expense. Similar steps 
were taken at the same time by the Ministry of Education, and the 
Ministry of War. 
The representatives of the Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns 
were persistent in urging the Committee to entrust the work of car- 
ng for discharged soldiers to the combined forces of the two unions, 
which would be in a position to give proper guidance to the indi- 
7sidual zemstvos and municipalities and to develop their activities 
on a nation-wide scale. After lengthy negotiations between the two 
nnions on the one hand and the Committee on the other, the latter 
was informed on January 15, 1916, that the two unions considered 
it feasible to coordinate their work with that of the Committee, but 
on condition that the zemstvos and municipalities should put into 
offect the common plan worked out by them for the relief of the dis- 
abled, and that they should submit their request for subsidies to the 
Central Committees of the two unions and that these should then 
forward them to the Special Committee of the Supreme Council. 
Five months elapsed without any reply to this suggestion. Finally 
the Duma took a hand in the matter and then the Supreme Council 
also found it necessary to pay serious attention to the fact that no 
coordinated work was being done in an institution which was sup- 
posed to have been created precisely for coordinated effort. In the 
journal of the Supreme Council of June 9, 1916. we read: 
It must be admitted that, as the annual report on the work of the 
Special Committee shows conclusively, this work, as now carried on, is 
not fully calculated to discharge the important and responsible duty 
mentioned above. . . . The branches of the Council and the Committee 
.tself failed to organize adequately the relief of the disabled soldiers. 
The work done so far was carried on as a private charity, and, as 
shown by experience, does not satisfy the requirements of a national 
>rganization for the relief of disabled soldiers. The problem cannot be 
satisfactorily solved unless it is put in the hands of a responsible organ 
on the spot for whom the care of disabled soldiers would be not merely a 
right, but also a duty, independently of the assistance which they might 
be receiving from charitable organizations. 
After these experiences the Special Committee on June 21, 1916, 
informed the Zemstvo Union that it was ready to accept its terms.