56 THE. ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR
Relief of the Sick and Wounded Soldiers.” Losing no time, the
board had already placed itself in telegraphic communication with
the provincial zemstvos and received from many of them expressions
of perfect sympathy and promises to join the proposed union. The
meeting unanimously approved the recommendations of the board
and passed a resolution to summon two representatives of each zem-
stvo to Moscow, to meet there on July 30 for the purpose of forming
the proposed union of all the zemstvos.
Organization of the Union of Zemstovos.
On July 30, 1914, accordingly a conference attended by repre-
sentatives of thirty-five provincial zemstvos assembled at Moscow.
The other zemstvos sent word that they were in full sympathy and
joined the Union. The only zemstvo refusing to affiliate itself and
preferring to act separately was that of Kursk.® The new organiza-
tion established a fund amounting to 600,000 rubles (gold), which
was all that the zemstvos had at their disposal. Soon after this, the
Union was joined by the organizations of the Don Cossacks (who
had no zemstvo), who contributed to the common fund the sum of
500,000 rubles.
The conference approved the constitution of the Union. The su-
preme power in the Union was vested in the conference of the depu-
ties of the provincial zemstvos, each zemstvo having two representa-
tives, one elected by the provincial assembly and the other by the
provincial board. Moscow was selected as the meeting place of the
conference. It chose the president of the Union—the High Commis-
sioner—and a Central Committee composed of ten members.
In principle, the conferences were to direct the work of the Union,
to issue orders, and to administer the funds, while the Central Com-
mittee was to serve as the executive organ. In practice, however, it
soon became apparent that the zemstvo members had so much work
to attend to in their respective localities that they were not able to
go to Moscow frequently, to attend the meetings of the conference;
and thus it came about that the work was gradually concentrated in
the Central Committee. The functions of the conference were eventu-
ally reduced to the decision of certain general questions of prin-
ciples.
3 The zemstvo of Kursk was notorious for its reactionary character.
