198 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
In the first lines of this letter we wish to thank you for your prompt 
attention to us wounded fighters, seeing how kindly and mercifully you 
cared for us and tried to please us. If anyone asked you for anything, 
dear sister, you always let us have it, and so we thank you again and 
again very much for your prompt attention. When we were put on 
board the train and found ourselves in your care, we felt as if we were 
at home and we regard you as our own little mother. Thank you, dear 
little sister, thank you again, may God send you success for many years 
0 come. Also many thanks to your dear assistant, we thank him many 
many times, for he is an excellent fellow. And then, dear little sister, 
we Cossacks thank you again very particularly, because we have never 
met such people as you. Thank you, thank you.’ 
The Hospital Trains and the Government. 
War is a cruel thing. In war-time even the most common human 
sentiments of pity for its victims are sometimes found fault with 
from quite unexpected motives and considerations. A wounded sol- 
lier is not an ordinary patient, but a soldier, who is expected to re- 
turn to the ranks. This must be remembered by those who attend 
him, and they must maintain discipline and prevent the slightest 
relaxation of it. Such were the constant reminders sent out by the 
supreme chief of the army hospital service, Prince Oldenburg, in 
spite of the fact that he himself was a very kindly person at heart. 
In the Prince’s opinion, many of the zemstvo institutions, but espe- 
zially the hospital trains, failed to meet this requirement. In Novem- 
ber, 1915, he told Prince Lvov, President of the Union of Zemstvos, 
that he intended to appoint army officers as train commanders, to 
zeep the crews and staffs under proper discipline. Prince Lvov ob- 
jected on the ground that the hospital trains were working on the 
zonditions laid down in the agreement signed by the chief of the 
general staff on October 12, 1914. This agreement required the 
Zemstvo Union to equip, maintain, and administer its hospital trains 
till the end of the War. The appointment of two separate authori- 
ties over the trains—the military commander and the surgeon in 
charge—who would not only be independent of each other, but 
would also derive their authority from different sources, was bound 
to result in numerous complications and misunderstandings, from 
which the work must inevitably suffer. A lengthy correspondence 
5 Jzvestia (Bulletin), No. 9, pp. 55-56.