REFUGEES 161
tire communities migrating under the leadership of the village
priest, or the village elder or schoolmaster. At other times they were
merely panic-stricken mobs. In leaving their homes the refugees
tried to carry with them some of their belongings, moving along in
disorderly and seemingly endless lines of wagons and other vehicles,
surrounded by domestic animals.

Organization of Relief Work.

The work of the zemstvo organizations became more complicated
when the refugees had to be moved farther into the interior. There
was now the additional burden of finding room for them on the railway
 trains, helping them to dispose of their cattle and equipment,
improving railway facilities, providing food along the road, and
establishing isolation hospitals to prevent the spreading of infectious
 diseases in the interior of the country. Special committees were
established for the relief of refugees, and they made arrangements
with other organizations working for the relief of the refugees, such
as the Union of Towns, the Committee of the Grand Duchess Tatiana,
 and the various national committees (Polish, Jewish, Lettish,
and Lithuanian).
At the end of July, 1915, the Minister of the Interior also took
measures for the relief of refugees. He dispatched two assistant ministers
 to the war zone. One of them organized the so-called “Southern
 Relief” (Yugo-Pomoshch) on the southwestern front and the
other established a similar organization, known as the “Northern
Relief” (Severo-Pomoshch) on the northwestern front.
Apart from the activities of various organizations which came to
be gradually formed to deal with the refugee problem, the work of
the zemstvo institutions at the front steadily expanded. Along the
routes taken by the refugees, whether by rail, water, or road, canteens
 and dispensaries were established, together with hospitals and
temporary shelters for orphans and lost children. The Union’s committee
 of the southwestern front provided also guides, who were instructed
 to look after the needs of a particular group of refugees,
to comfort them, to see that the crowds were properly managed
when boarding trains or ships, to protect them in every way, and to
see that food and medical care were supplied along the road. The reports
 of the guides presented a gloomy picture of the migration of