SICK AND WOUNDED 131
Nevertheless it was found impossible to initiate joint action satisfactorily.
 In order to draw up the estimates for the institutions
most urgently required, it was important to know the number of the
lisabled men in each group. The Union, therefore, decided to take a
census of the disabled soldiers with the aid of its local organs, and
applied for the necessary funds to the Special Committee. The latter,
 however, intended to take such a census on its own account and
refused to grant the necessary funds, with the result that the proposed
 census was never taken.
How slowly the needs of the war invalids were being attended to
oy the bureaucratic institutions may be seen from the manner in
which the supply of artificial limbs was dealt with. Under the law,
every disabled soldier was entitled to be provided with any artificial
limb that he required. There were only three institutions in the
whole of Russia that could manufacture such limbs: the Institute of
the Empress Marie at Petrograd, the Committee of the Grand
Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna at Moscow, and the Committee of
the Grand Duchesses Militsa and Anastasia at Kiev. Under the most
favorable conditions, however, these three institutions were able to
satisfy not more than one-twelfth of the yearly supply that was
found to be required during the War. Invalids would thus be compelled
 to wait their turn for long periods, which might run in cerlain
 cases to twelve years. Yet these three institutions in fact alone
enjoyed those special privileges without which it was impossible to
furnish artificial limbs to discharged soldiers; that is to say, they
alone had the right to request the local military commanders to
send the invalids at government expense to the nearest workshops
for artificial limbs; they alone were entitled to obtain parts of articial
 limbs from the government factor at Petrograd; and to them
alone was the Ministry of War permitted to make payments for
artificial limbs furnished according to a definite scale.
In spite of the difficulties above mentioned, something was nevertheless
 accomplished in this matter by the zemstvos. Thus, the provincial
 zemstvo assembly of Voronezh as early as the end of 1914
placed 30,000 rubles at the disposal of the zemstvo board for the
relief of disabled soldiers, but especially for the supply of artificial
limbs to them. Later on, the same zemstvo opened a small workshop
for this purpose. The Kharkov zemstvo had likewise conceived the