WORK IN THE ARMY 
205 
the facilities were of the most rudimentary kind. A bathing station 
of the first type was established in Turkish Armenia at a distance 
of eighty miles from the Russian frontier, for which purpose the 
Seventh Detachment adapted a large, warm tent on the banks of the 
Euphrates. The tent was provided with eight shower baths, hot- 
water boilers, and a powerful pump. The whole equipment was 
srought on camel-back over difficult mountain passes. We also find 
reports of small bathing stations at places where the halt was of 
short duration. Thus, the Fifth Detachment reports that “the bath- 
ing station was set up in one of the peasant cottages, glass panes 
were replaced in the windows, the oven was rebuilt so as to hold the 
boiler which had been made out of an iron petrol barrel; buckets, 
lanterns, and a few other necessary articles were bought; yet the 
total cost of the whole equipment did not exceed the sum of 21 
rubles. From April 1 to 29, 1915, during which time the detachment 
was stationed here, about 6,000 soldiers enjoyed the benefits of the 
bathing station.”*! 
Attached to these bathing stations there were invariably cleansing 
and disinfection chambers through which the clothing and under- 
wear of the soldiers were passed while they were taking their bath. 
Frequently the soldiers had no clean underwear and then it had to 
be supplied by the unions. Special laundries were organized to deal 
with the soiled underwear left behind. Clean underwear was sorted 
out: the badly worn garments were torn into pieces to serve as 
putties, while others were sent to the repair shops. In this way the 
supply of clean underwear was constantly renewed and whatever 
was missing was provided by the warehouses of the Zemstvo Union. 
[t was soon also found necessary to establish barbers’ shops in con- 
nection with the bathing stations. The Union had also to face the 
problem of repairing the soldiers’ boots, which were often in a bad 
state, and the result was that the first boot repair shops at the front 
were also due to the Union’s initiative. 
Other Activities of the Field Detachments. 
Dispensary work had been carried on from the outset on a very 
large scale, at first for the soldiers alone, later also for the local 
civilian population and refugees. In view of frequent applications 
‘1 Ibid., No. 18, p. 83.