A TELEGRAPHIC NOTE To M. GEORGES CLEMENCEAU, PRESIDENT OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE FROM VLADIMIR TEMNITSKY, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE UKRAINIAN REPUBLIC. 1919

July 29, 1919

The Supreme Council of the Peace Conference, by its

resolution of the 25th of June, 1919, has authorized the Government

of the Polish Republic to occupy a great portion

of the Western Territory of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic;

that is to say, East Galicia up to the Zbruch River.

The purpose of this resolution was, after its own terms, "to

safeguard the lives and property of the peaceful population

of East Galicia against the dangers and threats of Bolshevist

bands." The Supreme Council of the Allied and Associated

Powers has decided to authorize the forces of the Polish

Republic to extend their operations up to the Zbruch

River.

The undersigned, plenipotentiary representatives of the

lawfully and duly elected Government of the Ukrainian

people, solemnly protest against this decision which abolishes

the principle of the self-determination of peoples, violates

in a most iniquitous manner the sovereignty of the Ukrainian

Democratic Republic over its own territory, and delivers

the Ukrainian people of East Galicia, liberated after

a long period of slavery, to the mercies' of an unbridled Polish

imperialism, to the horrors of a regime by Polish authorities,

and to the brutalities of the Polish soldiery. In alleging

the motives which actuated the decision of the 25th of

June, the Supreme Council is in evident contradiction with

the principles of self-determination of peoples, and the principles

of democracy embodied in the well-known Fourteen

Points of President Wilson and accepted by all the Allied

Powers as a basis for peace.

East Galicia, that is to say the country situated between

the San and Visloka Rivers on the west and the Zbruch on

the east, is ethnographically and historically a Ukrainian

territory, in which the Poles, as confirmed by Polish statisticians, scientists, and geographers (Prof. Buzek, Prof. Romer, Prof. Pilat), form, together with the Jews, an altogether

insignificant minority. This country was up to the

middle of the sixteenth century an independent Ukrainian

state, first a principality and then a kingdom, with successive capitals in Peremishl, Halich, and Lviv. Even after

its conquest by the Polish king, Casimir, it formed in the

Kingdom of Poland a separate unit under the name of the

Ruthenian Palatinate.

The Ukrainian people of Galicia never consented to the

annexation of this territory to the Kingdom of Poland; on

the contrary, they struggled ceaselessly to overthrow Polish

oppression until Galicia was incorporated with Austria. The

Dynasty of the Hapsburgs, to satisfy the desires of the Polish

nobility, established an artificial supremacy in favor of

the Polish minority over the Ukrainian majority, and this is

the reason why East Galicia, which has always been Ukrainian,

has assumed an artificial Polish air and the Ukrainian

people have been delivered to the Poles. These people, from

the Diet of Kromerizh in 1848 to the Viennese Diet of 1918

have never ceased to battle for sovereigntz over their territory,

and to oppose the division of Galicia into two parts, the

western half Polish and the eastern half Ukrainian, in which

each nationality would form a unit independent of the other.

When, at the end of October, 1918, the Austro-Hungarian

edifice was crumbling to the ground, East Galicia, acting in

concert with the other ethnographical Ukrainian territories

of the old Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, proclaimed its sovereign

independence in the provisional constituent assembly

called in Lviv on the 19th of October, 1918, and established

a government which has extended its power over the entire

country since the first of November, 1918. The government

in conformity with declared constitutional principles assured

complete cultural and religious autonomy to the Polish and

Jewish minorities. The Provisional Parliament of the Western

Territory of the Ukrainian Republic, conforming to the

laws still in force at that time, enacted new laws to meet

current needs and to exercise a strict control over the operations

and actions of the Government. The Government enacted,

among others, the law of the 15th of April, 1919 governing

the elections to the Local Diet of East Galicia, which

gave to all the minorities, including the Poles, a number of

representatives proportional to their population. It also enacted

a land law based on the sanctity of private property,

which, without injuring the system of land cultivation then

existing, substantially provided for a division of the great

landed estates among those peasants who possessed no land

at all and those who did not possess enough.

The Ukrainian National Council, in its capacity as legislative

body for the Western Ukrainian territory, proclaimed,

by its decision of the 3rd of January, 1919, the union of all

the Ukrainian territories of old Austria-Hungary with the

Ukrainian Democratic Republic of former Russia. The

Ukrainian Democratic Republic has consented to this union.

The ethnographic Ukrainian territories of former Russia and

former Austria-Hungary now form a single state which has

taken the name of "Ukrainian Democratic Republic."

Of all the minorities in East Galicia the Poles alone have

opposed the right of self-determination exercised by the

Ukrainian nation over its own country to form an independent

state. They have stirred up a revolution. The Poles,

. not comprising more than one-fifth of the total population of

the country have not the right to govern it, and if they ever

have had such a right they renounced it formally in favor

of the Russian government during the Russian occupation

of East Galicia in 1914. Knowing that this land has never

been and is not now a Polish country, Poland has come to the

military aid of Polish subjects in the western regions of the

Ukrainian Democratic Republic, and it is for this reason

alone that East Galicia has been made the ground upon

which is being waged a terrible and pitiless struggle. It is

clear that this war bears all the earmarks of an insatiable

Polish imperialism, while on the side of the Ukrainians it

appears as a justified defense against the armed, brutal, and

merciless aggression of the Poles.

The Government of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic,

relying upon the published principles of President Wilson and

the justice of the decisions of the Supreme Council of the

Peace Conference, sent a Delegation to Paris to ask, in the

name of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic and the Ukrainian

people, the recognition of the independence of the

Ukrainian Republic and the Ukrainian people's sovereignty

over purely Ukrainian territories.

The Supreme Council has destroyed all hope of impartiality

by authorizing, through its decision of the 25th

of June, 1918, the Polish army to occupy and pacify East

Galicia to the River Zbruch. The Supreme Council has

granted this authorization on the ground that the occupation

of East Galicia by the Polish army would guarantee the lives

and property of the peaceful population of East Galicia

against the atrocities of the Bolsheviki. This reasoning is

completely contradicted by the true state of affairs and

proves that the Poles have given to the Supreme Council

only such information on the situation in East Galicia as was

false and distorted to suit imperialistic schemes.

Given this fact, we affirm, with full personal responsibility

for all that we say here, not only in


the eyes of history

but also before any impartial tribunal, that during the entire

duration of the Ukrainian regime there have been no Bolshevist

bands, but only individual Bolshevist agitators. We

also affirm that it is by virtue of the Ukrainian army of PetIura

and the army of the Minister of Justice of the Western

Territory of the Ukrainian Democratic Republic that neither

the Bolshevist armies nor the troops of Rakovsky have invaded

the Galician lands. In consequence, the declarations

of the chauvinistic Polish press concerning Bolshevist bands

are flagrant fabrications. It is well known that the Polish

press terms as "Bolshevist bands" the regular Ukrainian

army, which, repulsing with heroic bravery the imperialistic

military aggression of Poland against Ukraine on one

side, has defendeq on the other side, with equal heroism,

this .s ame country against the invasion of Russian Bolshevist armtes.

These undeniable facts, which we most emphatically affirm,

remove even the semblance of justice from the decision

of the Supreme Council and provoke profound indignation

in the hearts of all the Ukrainian people. All impartial

witnesses,-among others, all those numerous delegates of the

Entente Powers who, from the month of December, 1918 to

the end of May, 1919, have visited the Western Territory of

the Ukrainian Democratic Republic and have had occasion

to study with their own eyes the state of affairs-unanimously

bear witness that the Western Territory of the Republic,

that is to say East Galicia, has always enjoyed, under Ukrainian

rule, order and tranquillity; that there have been no

troubles, no uprising, no pogroms; that all the inhabitants,

without considering race or creed, and all classes of society

have found equal p;:otection under the law; and that the

Poles in particular have possessed full liberty and freedom

to develop their cultural and national activities according

to the just and impartial laws then existing.

It clearly results from this description of the true state

of affairs that no pacification whatsoever of East Galicia

was necessary. There was no reason to have this country

occupied by foreign troops, and, what is a glaring injustice,

to give this mandate to occupy by military force to a State

which at the very moment is waging imperialistic warfare

with the declared intention of annexing Galicia, to a

people who for centuries have been the traditional enemies

of Ukraine, to an army which during the present war has

committed innumerable acts of violence and terror against

the Ukrainian civil population. The long list of these abominable

outrages


is the most striking testimony of the man

ner in which the Poles execute their mandate for the pacification

of East Galicia and how they "protect" the lives and

property of the peaceful population.

The Poles are flooding the entire world with wholly false

or greatly exaggerated tales of cruelties practiced on the

Poles by the Ukrainians. And even though one were to take

these stories seriously, yet they are as nothing compared to

the atrocities perpetrated by the Poles. The famous pacification-

expedition of the Poles is being conducted in the following

manner:

The Poles arrest the Ukrainian "intelligentsia", peasants,

and artisans; and intern them in forts, jails, and prison

camps. The commanding general of the Polish army in

East Galicia has issued a special order of the day in this

respect. He is expelling the Ukrainian population en masse

from the country; he is buring the Greek-Catholic churches;

he is killing off the peaceful Ukrainians; he even hangs and

shoots the children. The Poles have put an end to all cultural

organization and practically all the Ukrainian economic

order in all the occupied territory of East Galicia; they forbid

the use of the Ukrainian tongue; they seize and destroy

historical documents, close the schools, and burn the Ukrainian

text-books. The Ukrainian people in East Galicia find

themselves in a hell, so to speak, and the persecutions to

which they are subjected find no parallel in history.

The Ukrainian population is not the only one to become

the bloody victim of this Polish system of pacification. It

is known that the Jewish pogroms were perpetrated following

the arrival of Polish troops in East Galicia, in which

Polish officers and men played an active part around Lviv,

in the prison camps at Kolorniya, and in many little villages

of East Gl:llicia. It is very natural then that the Polish

occupation and the so-called pacification of East Galicia has

been the cause of a most unfavorable reaction in Eastern Europe.

The fact that the Peace Conference has sanctioned this

pacification expedition will not pacify Central Europe, nor

will the fact that Poland abuses her mandate by exterminating

the Ukrainian people, obliterating their culture, and

destroying their property. All this will engender in

the future new military conflicts on the frontiers of the East.

For this reason we appeal to the human conscience, to

the sentiments of justice, to the reason of the statesmen of

the Allied Powers, and above all, to the members of the

Supreme Council of the Peace Conference.


We appeal not

only in the interest of Ukrainian sovereignty over purely

Ukrainian territories, not only to defend the most sacred

rights of the Ukrainian people to dispose of themselves as

they see fit and safeguard their future, their property, and

their culture, but in the general interests of all humanity,

with the intention to reestablish normal relations in Eastern

Europe at the earliest possible moment, in the interests of

a durable peace, and to assure to millions of people the

opportunity to live tranquil lives.

Before showing the injustice of the mandate accorded to

Poland by the decision of the Supreme Council and the political

consequences that it will have for Ukraine, for its

people, for Eastern Europe, and for the entire world, we

solemnly protest against this mandate before the civilized

world in the name of the most sublime ideals of humanity,

in the name of Democracy. We ask for an impartial intervention

by the Supreme Council to put an immediate end to

this pitiless extermination of the Ukrainian people in East

Galicia, and to stop the flow of innocent blood, the torture of

political prisoners, the deportation of peaceful Ukrainian

citizens, the burning of villages, the pillage of property, and

the destruction of culture. The Poles are committing all

these crimes through abuse of the mandate of pacification

confided to them and are realizing their dreams of Ukrainian

extermination with the moral, military, and pecuniary aid

of the Allied Powers.

The Ukrainian State and its people can not surrender

and never will surrender their right to self-determination and

· self-defense. If the Poles or any other people threaten their

most sacred rights and their most precious treasures, then the

Ukrainian State and all its people will be compelled to do all

that the instinct of self-preservation commands them to do.

At the moment of writing we hear from Paris that the

Supreme Council has made another concession to imperialistic

Poland in authorizing the establishment of a civH administration

in East Galicia. The State and the Ukrainian

people see in this decision a new mortal blow aimed at their

liberties, al'!d they protest with anguish and indignation to

the civilized world against this new violation of the most

holy rights of a nation. Our long experience tells us that

none of the guarantees mentioned in this new decision can

give security to the Ukrainian people. The fact that the

Poles have never respected their treaties with the Ukrainians

in the past, all their guarantees existing only on

paper, forces us to conclude that the Poles will not fail to

ignore the guarantees reserved in the decision of the


Su

preme Council. Poland will not fail to take advantage of

this authority to establish a civil administration to denationalize

the country, terrorize the population, and bring all

its power to bear upon the results of a general plebiscitewill

resort even to violence and corruption. Furthermore,

such a referendum will be far from representing the free

will of the people so that neither the Ukrainian government

nor its people will be satisfied with such a solution of this

question.

All these reasons impel us to make the most vigorous

protest against this new decision of the 11th of July made

by the Supreme Council.

The Polish policy of annihilation in the Western Territory

of the Ukrainian Republic, East Galicia, started with the

first invasion of the Polish army in East Galicia in November,

1918. It seemed at the time that the Poles wished to

• take advantage of their military preponderance to persecute

the UkraiRian "intelligentsia" and the nationalist peasants,

and to destroy the leaders of the national movement. Entire

villages were plundered and depopulated by massacres; thousands

of Ukrainians were deported and interned in the camps

of Polish West Galicia and in the Kingdom of Poland. Even

assassinations and atrocities were practiced against Ukrainian

officers and soldiers who had been taken prisoners. In

Lviv the Ukrainians were forbidden to use Cyrillian letters

in their writing and the Ukrainian newspaper Vpef'ed (Forward)

was suspended. All these atrocities and violations of

rights became the basis of a system of annihilation from the

moment that the Poles were given the mandate for the socalled

pacification of the Ukrainian country up to the

Zbruch River with permission to employ Hailer's army in

the process.

Towards the end of this note we wi11 discuss how the

Polish delegates succeeded in the end in persuading the Council

of Five to confide the pacification of the country to the

Polish army. In the first place we will cite facts and testimony

which will demonstrate to all fair-minded people that

a terrible conflict is being waged in East Galicia between

Polish autocrats and annexationists and the national independence

movement of the Ukrainian people. The Poles are

seeking to use the political situation as a means to destroy

the educated Ukrainians and the civilizing work of the Ukrainian

people, and to incorporate into the Polish Empire a

country which, because of its weakness, finds it impossible to

resist. The Polish policy of extirpation in wiping out the

Ukrainian population,


and above all the educated Ukrainians,

is to destroy Ukrainian national culture and intellectual life

and even the Greek-Catholic Church. The destructive

work of the Polish chauvinists is a characteristic sign of the

relations between the Poles and the Ukrainians. But the

crowning point of this policy of Polonization lies in the colonization

of East Galicia by Polish legionaries and disabled

soldiers. This policy has been further revealed in the discussions

on agrarian reform in the Diet of Warsaw.

The Polish policy of annihilation in East Galicia has been

described as assuming most incredible forms of cruelty,

arrests and internments en masse of the Ukrainians in the

vicinity of the city of Lemberg. Hundreds of Ukrainians

have been arrested daily in the territory occupied by the

Poles, and then transported to the interior of Poland and interned

in camps built for that purpose. The principal

internment camps are at Lemberg, Dabie, Wadowice, Baranow,

Szcepioyn and Powiadcki in East Galicia and in the

unspeakable holes of fortified places of Modlin and Warsaw.

More than two thousand Ukrainians, among whom are

about two hundred priests, have been interned in the Brigidki

Prison in Lemberg, a prison which in the past has

served to house criminals of the most vicious sort. The Brigidki

is crowded to such an extent that many of the prisoners

have not ground room to sleep upon. Many women with infant

children are among the interned. In this particular

detention camp will be found a mother, Anastasia Vidiy,

with her child of six weeks. One will also find there a dozen

children ranging from two to ten years of age.

On the first of July, 1919, the following Ukrainians were

interned in the Brigidki Prison: Madame Kichera, a midwife

of Vizenka, with her two months old infant; Madame

Anastasia Zvir with her five year old boy; and Madame Anna

Zelena of Zamionka. Remarkable to state there are among

the interned many distinguished Ukrainians of high repute

who are not guilty of any particular crime, yet they have

been lightly cast into filthy dungeons to perish. It is evident

that the purpose of this procedure is to cause the disappearance

of these notables. More than two hundred men of high

standing have been interned in the last few days; among

them is the Vicar-General Tsehelsky of the city of KaminkaStrumilova,

a man seventy-three years old.

These prisoners are victims of the most brutal treatment;

they do not receive sufficient nourishment and the sick are

denied medical assistance. One need not be surprised then

that many Ukrainians die daily in these terrible prisons.

In the city of Lviv the barracks in Lichakowska Street have

been chosen to hold the Ukrainian prisoners, although there

are in the city many unoccupied barracks of more modern

construction. The barracks mentioned above are fitted with

frightful cells, and musty walls, hidden from the light of the

sun. ' The unhappy Ukrainians here encaged are dying a

lingering death. It is the universal opinion of their countrymen

that they will never see the light of day again. More

horrible than the arrests and internments en masse are the

revolting cruelties inflicted on Ukrainian soldiers and citizens.

The fo1lowing cases have been irrefutably established:

During the passage of the Polish troops through Yesup0l,

near Halich, not less than sixteen peasants were hung .

without trial in a single day. The Curate Pelekh, a peaceful

ecclesiastic and favorably known at Radechiv, and the

Curate Andrey Pelensky were shot without trial by the Polish

troops at Lisyatich near Striy. In the city of Striy the

Polish troops shot the Curate Ostap Nizankovsky, who was

for a long time the vicar of the district administration and

director of the agricultural societies. At Vodniki, near

Borka, Polish legionaries gouged out the eyes of the peasant

J asko Bondar with a bayonet because he resisted the

requisition of his last cow. All possessions of the population

of this city were seized by the Polish soldiery, including

clothing and linen. At Voloshina, near Bobrka, the school

teacher I van Kazanitsky was seized by Polish troops and while

being taken to Lemberg was flogged and beaten by the soldiers,

and then left on the wayside to die, covered with seven

mortal wounds. During the removal of four prisoners to

Kulparkiv, near Lemberg, other Ukrainians were seized on

the way, and pitilessly flogged. The commander of the

groups expressed himself to the effect that " It was useless

to drag these dogs along." They were shot on the spot.

Madame Goldberger, wife of the ranking physician of Lemberg,

was witness to the following incident: Krissa, a workman

on the Lemberg railroad, was arrested while on his way

to his family in Tarnopol and severely beaten. He was

subsequently thrown into prison, and his wife, a Polish lady,

was denied permission to visit him or bring him food. "We

must starve him to death", said the officer in charge. At

Pidbereztsi near Vinniki hundreds of unoffending men were

flogged by Polish legionaries until their flesh turned black

from the blows received.

A widow, mother of seven children, and the choir singer

of Labye were hung without trial because a rifle abandoned

by the Ukrainians had been found near the house of the

widow. One Malishevsky, a railroad executive,
was arrested at Zolochiv and subjected to brutal treatment. Malishevsky was commissioner of the Brody-Krasne and Podvolochiska- Krasne lines and acquainted with Captains Bachmann and Reicher, members of the American Mission in Krasne. The unfortunate man was beaten by Polish soldiers and in consequence suffered fractures of the legs and arms. After being rendered unconscious he was taken to Krasne. Entire groups of cultured Ukrainians were shot without mercy by Polish soldiery while passing through Sambor, Striy, and
Stanislav. Their names will be published. The Priest Demchuk,
and old man of seventy, was shot at Sokal because
his son was with the Ukrainian force.
A Ukrainian patrol under the cemmand of the bugler Kossar

was captured near Bartiatin. When the captives reached

Lviv Kossar was unceremoniously shot by a Polish
legionary. Seven Ukrainian soldiers captured at LubachiT
were shot near Sidliska in much the same manner. At
Hiriv Lieutenant Kremechko of the Ukrainian army and
many others were shot.
Doctor Karl Kure of Vienna relates the following incidentduring his stay in Stanislav immediately after the occupation of that city by Polish troops: "Polish soldiers

broke into the military hospital and ordered the gravely




wounded Ukrainians outside, where they were promptly shot.
A Ukrainian lieutenant who was also in the hospital was dispatched
along with the rest. Murders committed by Polish
soldiers on the Ukrainian sick and wounded are only too well known."
There are cases too numerous to mention of the violation

of Ukrainian women, particularly women of the more educated



classes, by the Polish soldiery. We cite only the following
verified incident: At Vinnitsky, near Lemberg, young
girls belonging to the best families were dragged from their
homes and publicly violated. Large ransoms in gold were
then demanded for the release of these girls, and in some
instances five thousand crowns were paid to obtain the
liberation of these unhappy victims of Polish violence. On
the 8th of May, 1919, regimental-sergeant J avorsky related
the following at Lemberg: "After we had occupied Risna
our first job was to gather in the cattle; whoever resisted
was killed on the spot. The other soldiers went after the
women while I got a girl of twelve whom other soldiers had
raped." The statement of a prominent Czecho-Slovak on
Polish atrocities is authority for the following: On the
nights of the 23rd and 24th of March, 1919, two Ukrainian
girls, Anna Mahun and Anna Tsihiv, of the
town of Piddubtsi, were subjected to the most diabolical cruelties. These two unfortunate girls were surrounded by Polish soldiers who
held them by the arms and legs while their companions
assaulted them.
This description of the treatmen of the Ukrainian
population, and more particularly the cultured classes, and
the results obtained by this barbarous policy of annihilation
practiced by the Poles is confirmed by strangers who have
had occasion to view the terrible situation at close hand.
The "Narodny Listy", a newspaper held in high repute in
Prague, carried the following correspondence on the 26th
of February, 1919: "Returning Czecho-Slovak prisoners
from Poland give terrible details of the lot of the Ukrainians
captured by the Poles. The Ukrainian prisoners are treated
worse than beasts; they have the appearance of living corpses;
their eyes are sunken, and their cheek-bones protrude.
Famished, they seek in the streets the crusts that our
soldiers throw away, for the Poles give to the cattle the
bread which should be distributed to the Ukrainians, who
are dying of hunger and typhus."
Nobody takes any care of the Ukrainian prisoners.
Those of them ordered to hospitals are carried there in
wagons pulled by other sick Ukrainians. They are subjected
to insults and ridicule and are often discharged from the
hospitals while still sick. Many times the sick have died en
route from the hardships they have suffered.
Many Ukrainian villages were pillaged and burned during
the first invasion by the Polish troops, particularly those
villages whose inhabitants were considered to be patriotic.
In the district of Sudova Vishnia, near Lviv, seven villages
were reduced to ashes. The people were killed at
the point of the bayonet. All this was done by virtue of an
order of General Maskiewicz, who, by reason of his cruelty,
was placed on the retired list. But the Polish soldiers and
chauvinists loudly denounced his removal and demanded his
immediate reinstatement. After three days the Warsaw
Government capitulated to popular sentiment, and General
Maskiewicz was restored to his command to resume his
nefarious work.
These atrocities are on a par with the barbarous cruelties
perpetrated in the Balkans and Armenia. And the massacre
of Cherche even surpasses those historical crimes.
This village was noted for the patriotic ardor of its citizens,

a fatal defect in the eyes of the Poles, for they decided to

punish it in an exemplary fashion. The village was surrounded
by Polish legionaries and all street corners set on

fire. All persons attempting to flee were killed with rifle

or bayonet. Polish soldiers were seen to seize living children

and hurl them into the flames.

We have already spoken of the restriction placed on Ukrainian

writing and the suppression of the press. Only one

newspaper is being published in the Ukrainian language in

the occupied territory at this moment.

The staff of the daily "Vpered" has been arrested and imprisoned.

All the scientific institutions have been closed and

sacked by the Poles. At Lviv the Farmers' Co-operative

Union, Silsky Hospodar, and Soyuz Torhovelnih Spilok,

(Union of Commercial Societies) have been suppressed and

their funds and stock confiscated. There is not one Ukrainian

printing house operating today; all have been seized

by the Poles. The ancient printing establishment of the

Order of St. Basil in Zhovkva has been requisitioned, and

the archives, together with the library, have been pillaged

and burned. The printing plant and archives of the Staropigiysky

Institute at Lviv, the most important disseminator

of Ukrainian learning in East Galicia, and which even in the

, eighteenth century exercised a strong influence on Ukrainian

Literature, has suffered the same fate.

The monastery of the Order of Saint Basil at Krechiv

and its library were plundered, and forty-three priests were

exiled to Western Poland. The Ukrainian theatre, as well

as all the primary and secondary schools of Lemberg, have

been closed. Pedestrians on the road from Zhovkva to Krehiv

found precious antiques and destroyed manuscripts

in the mud. Ukrainian primary text books which have been

lawfully used in the Ukrainian primary schools were confiscated

and ordered burned by the Polish primary school

inspectors.

The commissioners of all villages were ordered to gather

all Ukrainian school books in one place and burn them. The

use of the Ukrainian language, oral or written, by the civil

authorities has been strictly forbidden in the Ukrainian territory

occupied by the Poles. All caught speaking the Ukrainian

language suffer corporal punishment. As testimony

to this unheard of brutality we cite the following facts:

The canon of the Greek-Catholic Consistory in Peremishl,

Dr. Bohachevsky, was flogged by Polish soldiers because he

answered his inquisitors in Ukrainian. The Polish officer

presiding personally prescribed the punishment, saying,

"Teach this priest that he can no longer use his language

of pigs."

At Peremishl also a certain Pankivsky, son of a
Ukrainian priest of the district of Striy, was assaulted because he testified in Ukrainian during the course of his trial. He was beaten by a corporal in the presence of an officer and compelled to testify in the Polish tongue, to sign his depositions
in Polish writing, and to take the oath of loyalty .
to the Polish state. Ukrainian officials in all the occupied
territory were discharged and their places taken by Poles.
An inadequacy of personnel compels the Poles to use some
Ukrainian officials, but these occupy subordinate positions
only and are not permitted to exercise their civil functions
until they have sworn fealty to Poland.
Notwithstanding the fact that the status of East Galicia
has not yet been defined the Poles compel all commissioners
of towns and villages to take the oath. It is a well-known
fact that the population of East Galicia professes the GreekCatholic
religion, which is by its nature a powerful bulwark
against the Polonization of the country since the Poles as a
whole belong to the Roman Catholic Church which dif' fers
from the former in its use of the Latin ritual and certain
religious rites. One needs not be surprised then if the Poles
apply themselves assiduously to the destruction of the GreekCatholic
Church and the Ukrainian clergy. The number of

Ukrainian churchmen arrested to date is more than a thousand; the greater part of the Greek-Catholic churches have

been sacked by Polish soldiers and used as stables for their
horses, and even as latrines. These outrages have occurred
in Pikulovichi, Domazhir, and many other cities. Public gatherings have been forbidden, as has also

the singing of church hymns in the Slavic tongue, under pain
of severe punishment. Even the Ukrainian clergy is subjected
to assault and insult by the Polish soldiery, as for
example in the village of Botulitse, where the priest, an old
man of seventy, was stoned by Polish soldiers because he
recited his prayers in Ukrainian. This priest is now interned
at Rava Ruska. Ukrainian priests are confined in cells
with common criminals and thieves where they are assaulted
and abused. In the city of Uhniv the Ukrainian priest
was placed in the same cell with some notorious thieves.
The prison guard then donned the sacramental vestments of
the Greek-Catholic Church an~ sought to ridicule the priest
before the other prisoners by officiating at a mock mass.
High dignitaries of the Greek-Catholic Church are subjected
to this same maltreatment and abuse. Every day a
Polish patrol enters the presence of Doctor Kotsilovsky, the
Bishop of Peremishl and a peaceful man never involved in
politics, making requisitions on his household
effects, and

threatening him with personal harm and even the firing

squad. The highest dignitary of the Greek-Catholic Church,

Count Andrew Sheptitsky, is confined in the Palace of St.

G€orge because he wished to complain to Pilsudski of the

cruelties perpetrated upon the Ukrainians, and wished, for

this purpose, to confer with the Polish Commander-in-Chief.

A Polish patrol has been stationed on the square of St.

George, in front of the palace of the venerable Ukrainian,

and everybody forbidden, under pain of arrest to see the

Metropolitan. The patrol has orders to maintain a strict

watch on the Metropolitan lest he leave the palace.

The Polish attitude towards the Greek-Catholic Church

is a fair indication of the manner in which they hope to

propagate their culture in East Galicia, and it betrays also

the efforts being made for Polish colonization. This last

means employed by the Poles to annex this Ukrainian country

is on a par with the methods used by the Prussians to

accomplish the same results in Poland. It is a fact that

from the time of the Austrian domination the Poles have

exerted great efforts in colonizing East Galicia with Polish

elements. Since the Polish State has been founded, and

since East Galicia has given the Poles a reason for a socalled

pacification expedition, they have maintained their

freedom of action to dispose of the land as they see fit.

A project of agrarian reform containing the following dispositions

is actually under discussion in the Warsaw Diet:

The free distribution of the great landed estates is forbidden;

the distribution thereof can only be effected through

the Polish colonization office. The lands shall be granted

first to men of rank, next to retainers of the great .landed

estates, and these we know from experience are exclusively

Poles. Third in line with privilege to buy are the Polish

legionaries and wounded soldiers; and lastly come the peasants

of the communities. For the last class the following

clause also has been inserted: "that these lands shall

not be apportioned where such an apportionment might

jeopardize the interests of the Polish State."

There is no need to explain in any detail the purpose of

this legislation over the non-Polish territory of East Galicia.

We must make known to mankind the methods employed

by the Poles in deceiving the outside world as to the real

situation in East Galicia. The Poles have obtained the socalled

pacification mandate for East Galicia through their

misrepresentation of the Ukrainian


army. They have pictured this army as a band of Bolshevists intent on terrorizing

unoffending Poles in East Galicia. The Polish Press has

collected a number of incidents attributed by them to the

Ukrainians for use at the Peace Conference. The repre~

sentatives of the Allied Powers who have had an opportunity

to conduct an impartial investigation of the true state of

affairs in the disputed territory during the Ukrainian admin~

istration unanimously agree that there has never been a

Bolshevist force in East Galicia, that there has been and

still is a national Ukrainian army with no other duty

than to protect the country against the Polish invasion, and

that after the proclamation of the independent Western

Ukrainian Republic this force has ruled the country in a

peaceful and orderly manner. The widespread publicity

given to news of alleged Ukrainian atrocities among the ruling

forces of the Allies by the Poles are not in harmony with

the truth of the matter and such news has been propagated

and exploited in order that the accomplishment of their declared

objective might be facilitated.

The method employed by Polish statesmen in exploiting

these pretended acts of cruelty by the Ukrainians is not new;

and those who have had to deal with the elections made by

the Poles in East Galicia understand this method thoroughly.

During the period of the Austrian domination it was the

custom of the Poles to complain to the Central Government,

which always lent them a ready ear, that frauds had been

committed by the Ukrainian Electoral Committees, or still

better, that disorders had accompanied the elections. Their

purpose was to obtain the arrest of the Ukrainian electors

en masse, thus making certain the election of a Polish candidate

in districts where the Ukrainians formed the majority.

This state of affairs, as well as the other electoral trickeries

with which the Central Government was led into error were

later exposed and discussed in the Austrian Parliament.

But the truth unfortunately appeared too late, for the desired

end had already been obtained.

We cite some details which illustrate Polish manipulation

of the alleged Bolshevism of the Ukrainian population and

the so-called acts of cruelty practiced on the Poles. Some

time ago the Polish newspapers gave pages to the alleged

news that a certain Peter Blacharski, a Pole, had been

arrested by the Ukrainians, who had cut out his tongue,

plucked out his eyes, cut off his nose, and branded a cross

on his forehead. The Tribune, a Lemberg weekly, even ran

a picture of this Blacharski. The Polish Archbishop Bilczewski

issued a pastoral letter to his flock featuring


the

affair. All Poland was convinced that the Ukrainians were

guilty of the fiendish cruelties practiced on Blac1:arski, and

there is no doubt that this picture of Ukrainian barbarism

was sent broadcast throughout the world.

Great was the surprise of the Poles when this same Blacharski

made his appearance in Lemberg a few days ago,

following the capture by Hailer's army of Stanislav, where

he had been detained by the Ukrainians.

The Roumanian officers who have occupied a part of East

Galicia can testify to the manner in which the foreiga element

has been deceived by the Poles through gross misrepresentation

of the facts. There is no need to emphasize

the value for the Ukrainians of this disinterested and impartial

testimony of a third party.

As the Roumanians were on a good standing with the

Poles after the occupation of Northeast Galicia and the

Delatin Kolomiya and Delatin-Keroesmoeze railroads, Roumanian

officers were greatly surprised at the denunciations

made by the Poles against the Ukrainians. Thus the Roumanian

chief in Kolomiya was advised by the Poles that all

the Roumanian soldiers in the vicinity had been massacred

by the population and that Ukrainian Bolshevist bands were

on the march. Similar denunciations were made against certain

individuals, as, for example, the members of the Ukrainian

Red Cross Mission, and against Doctor Alexander Maritchak,

counsellor of the Mission, who was denounced as a

Bolshevik and accused of having killed twenty Roumanian

officers. Naturally the Roumanian commander immediately

adopted severe measures, ordered an investigation, and arrested

Doctor Maritchak as a dangerous person. Two days

later the Roumanian Command released the Doctor, it having

been proved that the Polish denunciations were mere

stories invented for the purpose of exciting the Roumanian

army of occupation against the native Ukrainian population.

The truthfulness of the matters we have described can be

' easily verified by the testimony of the Roumanian ranking

officers, General Zadik, Colonel Gerotta, and Commander

Daszkevich.