166 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
to the two unions in the work of refugee relief was very clearly
manifested. Thus, at one of the meetings of the committee which dis-
cussed this scheme, the chairman, von Pleve, Assistant Minister of
the Interior. declared:
The Unions, in their desire to usurp the right of financing the zem-
stvos in the work of aiding the refugees, are trying to compete with the
Ministry of the Interior. But the Unions are sanctioned only as organi-
zations for the relief of the wounded. They have no legal power to act
on behalf of zemstvos and towns in refugee relief work. Therefore, we
should oppose appropriations of funds to the Union both for legal and
political reasons.
It should be noted, however, that the Government never identified
itself with the above view, and officially the care of the refugees re-
mained in the hands of the local organs of unions. But in practice
the Ministry of the Interior was guided by the principles formu-
lated by von Pleve. Among other things, this had its effect upon the
question of a census of refugees. The joint committee of the two un-
lons found it necessary to ascertain the exact numbers of refugees in
each province. When the census was already being taken, the Spe-
cial Council decided that the Committee of the Grand Duchess
Tatiana could do this work, and the Minister requested the unions
to drop the “experiments that had been started” and at the same
time notified the provincial governors of this decision.
The Central Committee of the Zemstvo Union believed the new
arrangement detrimental to the best interests of the refugees, since
it made it necessary for the zemstvos to apply to Moscow for funds,
while the Government refused to advance them; moreover, there was
great loss of time and waste of energy, and the union’s headquarters
at Moscow was already beginning to be criticized. For this reason
the Central Committee decided about the middle of November, 1915,
to discontinue the application of the instructions which it had re-
ceived from the conference of commissioners, and recommended to
the zemstvos that they should apply direct to the Special Council
for funds. It informed of its decision the Minister of the Interior,
in a lengthy memorandum which ended with the following state-
ment: “As for the work of the Zemstvo Union in rendering assist-
ance to refugees in the war zone and adjoining provinces, all such
measures were taken at the direct request of the military authorities
