No distinction of age, sex or physical condition was made. As most of the able-bodied young men were at the front, those affected by the expulsions were the persons least able to bear up under the suffering and privation entailed—old men and women, children, the sick from the hospitals, the insane from the asylums, even wounded and crippled Jewish soldiers—all were driven out en masse, without the slightest regard for human comfort or decency. Women in labor were given no consideration and many births occurred along the route. Mothers were separated from their children, entire families were broken up and dispersed all over Russia. The Jewish and liberal Russian press is filled with long lists of victims seeking their lost relatives. Where transportation was provided, the exiles were packed in cattle-cars and forwarded to their destination on a way-bill, like so much freight. In many places thousands of them were forced for weeks at a time to stay in congested villages which were absolutely unable to afford them a roof and shelter, or to sleep in the freight cars or in the open fields. And tens of thousands were forced to tramp weary distances along the open road, or, in the fear of the soldiery, to take to the back roads, the woods and swamps, there to die of hunger and exposure. The total number of Jews who have been expelled to date is unknown. Expulsions are still going on. At the beginning of June, 1915, at the deliberation of the Petrograd Central Committee for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers, which was participated in by the most prominent provincial committees, it was calculated that the total number of homeless Jews ruined by the expulsion—in Poland and the northwestern district—is 600,000 at the least.[39] After the Kovno-Kurland expulsions there collected in the Vilna government alone some 200,000 exiles.[40] In Riga there gathered, by May 18 (31), some 9,600 families or 42,000 persons.[41] Up to August 6, 1915, there collected in the government of Volhynia upwards of 250,000 refugees.[42] Hostages There is evidence to indicate that the Russian government, overwhelmed by the consequences of the expulsion policy, has suggested to the military authorities the advisability of repatriating the exiles; but these authorities have refused to consider the suggestion except on condition that the Jews voluntarily give hostages from among their own ranks, these hostages to include the Rabbi and other leading Jews. This proposal has been universally rejected by the Jews through their representative in the Duma, Deputy Friedman, in a letter to the President of the Council of Ministers: “As a deputy from the province of Kovno, from which I, together with all other Jews, have now been expelled, I consider it my duty to call the attention of your excellency to the following:—