262 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
prepared and submitted to the committee. Owing to lack of experi- 
ence, however, it was only natural that the estimates should fall 
short of actual requirements, and changes therefore had to be made 
even while the orders were being executed. The actual expenditure 
incurred by the committees of the front differed greatly from the 
figures set down in the estimates, yet the uncertain position of the 
Zemstvo Union, lacking a strict legal status under the law, made it 
imperative that its leaders should act with more than usual circum- 
spection and caution. The Government merely tolerated the Union 
as a necessary evil. The enormous amount of work accomplished by 
the Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns in organizing the active ele- 
ments of the population was looked upon by the Ministry of the 
Interior as a conspiracy directed against the Government. 
Public sympathy was with the unions, however, and this helps to 
explain in part the failure of practically every measure adopted by 
the Government to duplicate their work, such as the relief of refu- 
gees and of the disabled, and similar efforts. It was anticipated that, 
as soon as the War was over, the Government, embittered by the 
failure of its measures in this direction, would certainly take venge- 
ance on the most popular public leaders. The Mayor of Moscow, 
M. Chelnokov, who acted as the high commissioner of the Union of 
Towns, was right when he told the government officials on one of the 
commissions : 
Today you are calling upon us, asking us’ to help you, and you are 
readily granting us the funds. But presently you will cease to give us 
money as readily as you are doing now, and then you will begin to re- 
fuse it to us. A little later, again, you will commence to obstruct us and 
to fight against us. The end will be that you will do that which you 
have always been doing to public organizations, that is to say, you will 
attempt to drag them into court. We have been through nearly all 
these stages already, and there remains only the last.” 
The most convenient excuse that the bureaucracy would find for 
9ringing public leaders into court would be to accuse them of mis- 
asing the funds allotted by the Government and, in particular, to 
allege that the actual expenditure exceeded the estimates approved 
by the authorities. 
To avoid the possibility of conflicts on such grounds, the Central 
Committee of the Union endeavored to place the audit of expendi- 
10 Jewestia (Bulletin) of the Zamgov, Nos. 18-19, p. 23.