THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 261
them in the most efficient methods of using the gas mask, and enable
the men to pass through the gas-filled chamber with their masks on.
The demonstration was accompanied by lectures and the distribu-
tion of popular literature on the subject. Having completed its
demonstration in one place, the detachment would pack up and pro-
ceed to another. In this manner several million soldiers received in-
struction in the proper use of gas masks.®
The Finance and Audit Departments.
During the initial period of its work the Union of Zemstvos saw
no necessity to alter the customary method of the zemstvo institu-
tions in the disbursement of funds. Under this, the transactions of
the executive organs were controlled by an audit committee elected
by the zemstvo assembly. In one respect, it is true, the operations
of the Union at first differed greatly from what had been customary.
The zemstvos had been in the habit of working on the basis of a
yearly budget prepared in advance; the budget was examined and
approved once a year by the zemstvo assembly in a manner pre-
scribed by law. At the beginning of the War, however, it was incon-
ceivable that estimates should be prepared in advance for any great
length of time for everything was in a state of uncertainty and not
even the immediate future could be foreseen. In the chaos naturally
attending the first developments, particularly at the front, the ques-
tion of expenditure was relegated to the background, and gave place
to the all-absorbing effort to help the army immediately and regard-
less of cost. The situation became somewhat more delicate, however,
when the Zemstvo Union began to receive considerable funds from
the State Treasury.
These funds came from several sources. The principal were, (1)
the Military Fund, consisting of special sums placed at the dis-
posal of military officials having charge of supplies at the front, to
be used for unforeseen needs arising in the cause of military opera-
tion; (2) a committee at Petrograd, whose duty it was to assign
funds for what may be termed the normal war-time requirements.
As has already been explained, the committee demanded of the Un-
ion to present in each separate case an order from the military au-
thorities at the front, and an estimate. Accordingly estimates were
* Izvestia (Bulletin), Nos. 87-88, Pp. 46-47, 290; No. 39, pp. 33-35;
Nos. 64-66, pp. 40-44; also Kratki Obzgor Deyatelnosti (Outline), pp. 55-56.
