THE ZEMGOR 
283 
had gone to work in the province of Mogilev. On September 29 the 
Chief Engineer, accompanied by a general specially assigned for 
this purpose by the Emperor, made a very careful examination of 
the work already accomplished by the battalion, and their report 
apon it was so enthusiastic that when the Emperor had read it, it 
was decided to revert to the original plan. The Zemgor received a 
proposal to organize at once six battalions of trench workers. A last 
attempt was now made by the higher authorities to eliminate the 
Zemgor’s obnoxious “army,” and orders were given that the Zemgor 
should send to the front only engineers with complete equipment 
and supplies for six battalions, but without the laborers. The work 
was to be organized only after the forcible conscription of local la- 
bor for the purpose. It was found, however, that these unwilling 
laborers, even though receiving wages, took exactly five times as 
long over their work as the diggers and carpenters who had been 
hired by the zemstvos on a voluntary agreement. 
We need not go further into the details of the tragi-comical strug- 
gle in which the unions had to engage for the right to give the army 
the most effective assistance. We shall merely observe that, as time 
went on, it was found possible gradually to get the scheme working 
under normal conditions and, although the Government still per- 
sisted in placing obstacles in the way of the recruiting of labor by 
the zemstvos, the Zemgor was nevertheless able to dispatch to the 
front a total of over 100,000 workers, recruited and organized 
under its direction. 
On January 4, 1916, a conference was held at the headquarters 
of the supreme Commander-in-Chief to consider the problems of 
provisioning the army. Among those present were the high commis- 
sioners of the two unions. At this meeting “the representatives of 
the army expressed to Prince Lvov their satisfaction with the 
achievements of the Zemgor’s labor battalions, declaring that not 
only had they been able to meet the requirements of the army au- 
thorities, but they had even introduced some exceedingly valuable 
improvements in the work of building and fortifying the entrenched 
positions.” The task of the labor battalions of the Zemgor con- 
sisted 1n 
securing for the army defensive entrenchments in the rear, construct- 
ing artificial obstacles in the path of the enemy, removing trees which 
5 Izvestia (Bulletin) of the Zemgor, No. 12, p. 50.