VALE UNIVERS.
OCT S 1°1C
i^ARY

MEMORIAL

AINO

TION

FOR UI BERT V
Presented to the President of the United States and to the
Peace Conference in Paris
by the delegates of the
Ukrainian Convention
* » i oi the State of Connecticut

on the day of the Third of August, 1919, in the Ukrainian Hall
New Britain, Connecticut

*

In which Ihe desires, wishes and wails ol (he Ukrainians are expressed in view ol Poland's
taking into slavery five million Ukrainians as a result of a war for democracy.

Whoever reads these pages
be a friend of Ukraine.

The percentage of the Poles of Chicago
is in comparison the same as the percent
age of Poles in West Ukraine. Now
imagine the Poles in Chicago arming
themselves, closing the American schools,
burning the American clinrclies, banning
the English language and taking the ad
ministration of the city in their hands,
including courts, police, post office, rail
roads, etc., etc., etc.
What would you say, Americans?
Wouldn't you appeal to the world, if you
were as defenceless as we are?
This is what is taking place in West
Ukraine, and this is why we make this
appeal.

MR. PRESIDENT:
We, the undersigned Ukrainian delegates, the majority of whom
are American citizens of Ukrainian descent, of the Ukrainian brother
hoods, societies and associations in the State of Connecticut, represent
ing the total population of the former residents of West Ukraine, who
now live in Connecticut, of thirty-four thousand souls, assembled in
their name as well as in the name of Ukraine in New Britain, Conn.,
at a convention on the day of the third of August, 1919, and speaking
in behalf of high principles of humanity proclaimed repeatedly by
the President of the United States, beg the President to give your
consideration to this our solemn petition which we dispatch to you
in defence of our native land, Ukraine, against the rapacious and im
perialistic Polish designs.
The part of Ukraine in question, being the subject of this peti
tion, is Eastern Galicia and Kholm, the two provinces called West
Ukraine and comprising an overwhelming majority, nearly 75 per cent.
of the Ukrainian population, which in arrogant spite of all principles
of justice and humanity has been by a brute force of arms conquered
by the imperialist Polish army and forcefully and against the will
of the population annexed to Poland.
Those two territories, kept for nearly six hundred years under
a heel of a severe Polish oppression, have nevertheless preserved their
Ukrainian character up to the present time, and now, when the t'me
seemed near for their liberation, may we not ask the question: Are
the same prominent persons going to hurl them in the abyss of slavery
and ruin, who, standing at the brim of the abyss, preach the lofty
ideas of liberty to them?
The above named territories of East Galicia and Kholm were con
quered by the Polish king Kasimir in the wars of 1340 — 1380, the two
largest Ukrainian cities, Lviv (Lemberg), founded by the Ukrainian
prince Leo, and Peremishl (the Poles and the Germans called it
Przemysl), founded by another Ukrainian prince Peremyslav, were
razed, and ever since that time the Polish mailed fist predominated
physically but the Ukrainian soul and culture morally, in those ter
ritories. May we not go hack to those distant ages and recollect those
horrible times that our ancestors suffered from the Polish oppres
sors. So let it be permitted to us to tell of the equally cruel Polish
persecution of the latest times, nay, of the so-called twentieth century,
and to cite a few examples of the Polish rule in our native land, the
3

rule that would hardly suit the black races of Africa, and which filled
our hearts with deep resentment as it caused misery and poverty in
our homes which we consequently were obliged to abandon and go
abroad, leaving our relatives and properties at the mercy of cruel
Polish officials.
To enjoy the blessings of predatory rule the minority of Poles in
East Galicia were granted by the Austrian emperor an autonomy
broader than that of any other province of Austria. The governor
of Galicia was nominated by the Austrian emperor and only a Pole
could be nominated for this post. Hence, all public offices of the
central government were occupied by the Poles, for they were in
turn nominated by the emperor at the recommendation of the governor.
Thus in the localities purely Ukrainian there were Polish courts,
Polish judges, notaries, police, constables, clerks, railroads, post office
and a host of petty officials, all of whom were only the parasites living
on taxes and sapping the national vitalities of the Ukrainian people,
which, to be relieved of maltreatment and extortion were obliged to
leave their country, thus making a room for a Polish colonist. Thus,
one fifth of the Ukrainian population of that country with tears in
their eyes were forced to leave their country and settle in Canada,
United States of America or Brazil and elsewhere.
The schools were centers of demoralization from universities down
to the primary schools. All of them had to serve the purpose of
polonizing the Ukrainian population. At the university of Lviv, after
a long struggle the Ukrainian language was allowed as an idiom of
instruction for a few subjects only. A Ukrainian student Kocko was
killed by the Polish students during the fight at the university and
the murderers were acquitted by the Polish courts. Every admission
of a new Ukrainian professor was opposed by the Poles as a gross en
croachment upon Polish rights. This went so far that the governor
of Galicia himself vetoed the decision of the Senate of the Lviv univer
sity to offer the chair of the Ukrainian language to Dr. Ivan Franko,
the great Ukrainian writer and philologist widely known at home and
abroad. And every time the Poles were forced to accept a Ukrainian
professor the fact was glorified as an example of Polish magnanimity.
A law was passed by the autonomous Diet of Galicia prohibiting the
establishment of Ukrainian colleges for teachers since such colleges
would impede the Polish rulers in their scheme of polonization. Four
million Galician Ukrainians were not allowed to have one public
commercial or industrial school. Polonization was the first object of
elementary schools ; education the last. The Ukrainian teachers were
sent to Western Galicia by the Polish School Council, to deprive the
Ukrainians of the patriotic services of such men, and we often wit-

nessed how our children were being mutilated by the Polish teachers
for no other offense than speaking their own mother language on their
own soil.
The Ukrainian industrial, cultural and agricultural institutions
were maintained almost exclusively by individual subscriptions and
donations, yet they all prospered and not a single one failed. But
the Polish institutions, the competitors of the former, were fed upon
the taxes collected from the Ukrainian population. The zenith of
absurdity and anomaly was attained when it became a vogue with the
Galician Diet to pass the appropriations of the central Ukrainian en-
lightment society only after a favorable report has been received from
the competitive Polish society. Numerous laws were passed by the
Galician Diet to cripple the Ukrainian commerce and industry and
we witnessed among many other things that the imaginary cattle
diseases were invented by the Polish authorities to prevent the sale
of the Ukrainian cattle, in order not to compete with the prices of
cattle of the Polish landowners.
The lawlessness of the Polish rulers found a strong supporter in
the Austrian government as the latter needed their support in the
parliament in passing their shameful laws. In 1907 the universal
suffrage was introduced in Austria. The Poles immediately perceived
that this would interfere with their intrigues in Eastern Galicia and
exerted a strong opposition to this reform and maintained it so long
until the Austrian government granted them exceptional privileges
of minority votes which helped the Poles in the Ukrainian part of
Galicia to elect 30 deputies while the Ukrainians in the same territory
in which they constitute 75% of the population, had only 28. More
over, in Western Galicia where the Poles were in majority, the electoral
districts were so small- that they represented a maximum of 50,000
electors, while in Eastern where the Ukrainians were in majority each
deputy represented 100,000 electors. The elections to the Galician
Diet were done under still more farcical conditions. The electoral laws
governing the elections to the Galician Diet were Prussian in principle
and diabolical in practice if one considers the firing squads of police,
gendarmes and soldiers together with bribery or even non-admission
to the voting place. To show that the power they exercised had an
origin in the numerical strength the Polish authorities falsified the
census enumerations by openly registering as Poles half a million
Ukrainians of Roman Catholic religion and all the Jews of Galicia who
speak a German jargon and who number nearly one million. These
and other secret falsifications enable the Polish authorities to obtain
the percentage of the Poles of Eastern Galicia as high as 38 while in
fact it hardly surpasses the mark of 15.
5

Such was the government by the Poles, which stifled commerce
and industry and pauperized the peasantry that the landlords might
have cheaper labor, and which deprived us of our living income and
then forced us out of the country.
The designs to polonize the Ukrainian population of West
Ukraine and then incorporate them to the future Poland have al
ways been an ostentation boast of the Poles. In the letter published
by the Austrian emperor in Nov., 1916, the latter made it quite clear
that he was willing to add the Ukrainian Galicia to future Poland,
to be sure, as a recompensation for the unceasing assistance in the
parliament in subduing the Slav nationalities of Austria. May we
ask President Wilson and the Allies not to follow the steps of the
defunct autocrat.
Before the downfall of the Austrian Empire its sole means of
safety was sought by the Austrian government, which was the trans
formation of the conglomerate Austrian monarchy into a federation
of autonomous nationalities. The plan was received favorably by
all non-German nationalities with the sole exception of the Poles who
saw a threat against their privileged position in the Monarchy; and
this was the first time that the Poles together with the Germans op
posed the government's plan.
When the inevitable happened and the Austrian monarchy broke
up, the Ukrainians by the mere strength of their overwhelming num
erical superiority took the reins of the government and proclaimed as
independent the Ukrainian provinces of East Galicia and Kholm, the
latter province according to the Russian census containing 60 per cent.
of the Ukrainians and only an insignificant fraction of the Poles.*)
As the Russian government did not cajole the Poles of Kholm as did
the Austrian government in regard to the Poles of Galicia, the Poles
had never been able to make such inroads in the former country as
they did in the latter. And thus, though merciless and cruel, the
Tsars government was less destructive in results than the Polish gov
ernment, still more merciless, in the Ukrainian part of Galicia.
With the Austrian downfall, the Ukrainian government, thus set
up after nearly six hundred years of oppression, immediately acknow-

*) It should be kept in memory that Kholm is a geographical expression
embracing both the Ukrainian population in its eastern part and a narrow
strip of the Polish population in the western. This latter, which is not
claimed by the Ukrainians, if added to the whole of Kholm (as was done by
the Russian census) raises the Polish population of the province 20%, but
if separated, the Ukrainian part of Kholm will remain with 75% of the
Ukrainians, the rest being made up of Jews, Poles and Russians.
(This note was not included in the text.)
6

ledged the Jews as a separate nationality and granted the full re
ligious, political and educational rights to the Polish minorities. This
-government was able to cope with the difficult situation for seven
months. All branches of its management, educational, industrial and
political functioned in a best order, its army exceeded by its patriot
ism and discipline any army in Europe, and though the Poles in
their propaganda called this army a band, an army which was able
for seven months to withstand the greatly superior numbers, yet the
fact remains that the "band" was so orderly that it did not commit
a hundreth part of the atrocities as were committed by the Polish
imperialist soldiery against the Jews and Ukrainians.*)
Then having received arms and supplies from the Allies against
the imaginary Bolsheviks, the Poles treacherously turned against the
Ukrainian People 's Republic, for there were no Bolsheviks to be found.
And having aroused the local population and caused disorder they
appealed to the Paris Peace Conference and asked a permission to
annex the whole of West Ukraine under the pretext of suppressing
those disorders, but they failed to mention the fact that they them
selves were the authors of those disorders when they tried to coerce
the population of the Ukrainian country.
Thus a grave tragedy took place on the fields of West
Ukraine when the brutal Polish mercenaries invaded the peace loving
country in a manner comparable to the Tartar invasions centuries
before. Thousands of incidents of pogroms and massacres marked the
bloody trail of the Polish army. Thousands of innocent people were
killed or injured, fifty Ukrainian churches were burned and five
hundred others closed and thousands of Ukrainian intellectuals were
either massacred, interned or thrown to prison.

*) As to the alleged pogroms committed against the Jews by the
Ukrainians we can state that the Jews do not believe in them as firmly as
the Poles do. As a matter of fact, the Poles who tolerate and even incite
the pogroms become ardent and w.hole-hearted defenders of the Jews when
it comes to clamor against the Ukrainian pogroms. Nobody hears of Jews
protesting or making demonstrations against Ukraine. As a matter of fact,
the Jews sympathize with Ukraine and the proof of it is that Senator H. P.
Koppleman of the Connecticut Legislature who is himself a Jew spoke at the
Convention, at which this Petition was formulated, in behalf of Ukraine with
the warmest sympathy. The assertion of an amaturist guesser who said
that the Ukrainians killed a round number of 120,000 Jews did not find much
credence even among the Jows, as he failed to mention the time, locality, or
produce witnesses to back his statement. There might be some sporadic out
breaks against the Jews in Ukraine as in any other country but the fact
remains that the army of the Holubovich Government of West Ukraine gave
a best protection to the Jews as well as to the Poles.
(This note was not included in the text.)

This national tragedy inspired us with awe and terror and we
appeal to you as well as to all the civilized world not to let the worthy
Ukrainian people perish under the overcharge of oppression. We,
assembled at the convention, raise our voice of despair and pain when
we see our native land being mutilated in every manner conceivable.
We appeal to all those whose noble instincts of justice and equity
were not obliterated by the sights of cruelties and tales of bloody
battles, to rescue our nation and our families abroad and not allow
five million human beings to be bartered on such a wholesale scale
as cattle have never been bartered by any conference.
The Polish authorities, seeing that they had gone too far in
their conquest and in their restoration of "order", that the wave
of liberalism opposed their treatment of West Ukraine, applied an
old policy of treachery, and proclaimed an autonomy for West
Ukraine. But having passed a law of autonomy they passed another
law by which no landowner in Poland could possess more than 290
acres of land if his property is in Poland, but the same law provides
that landowners of West Ukraine can hold as many as 1,750 acres.
And to show still better the validity of the autonomy they made a
regulation in Galicia prohibiting the use of Ukrainian language in
all public places.
Such effrontery thrown to the face of Ukrainian nation and to
all the civilized world as well, should be stopped. We demand that
the political prostitution of the Polish imperialistic clique be put
to end. We demand a complete independence of East Galicia and
Kholm. We demand that the principles of selfdetermination of na
tions proclaimed by President Wilson hold valid. We demand that
the Poles govern the indisputably Polish territories and no others.
Otherwise there will be bloodshed until the extermination. The
great democratic Ukrainian nation numbering nearly forty million
souls will never bend to the knees of the Polish nobleman. The Presi
dent of the United States as well as America which gave liberty to
the negroes are appealed to by us who speak in the name of the forty
millions of Ukrainians to do us justice and give liberty to our brethern
abroad. For, under the pretext that they had granted autonomy to
the Ukranians the Polish clique tries to strangle the living nation to
enjoy its mortal convulsions. But this should not come to pass. The
nation that could withstand six centuries of most atrocious persecu
tion is worthy of liberty.
We demand a complete independence of West Ukraine. Sic fiat.
FOLLOW THE SIGNATURES OF THE FACULTY OF THE
CONVENTION AND OF 154 DELEGATES.

RESOLUTION NO. 1. ADOPTED BY THE CONVENTION.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
WOODROW WILSON.
"Whereas the President of the United States in his message to
the Senate of the United States, delivered February 3rd, 1917, said
that no peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and
accept the principle that Governments derive all their just powers
from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists
to hand people about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were
property, and,
"Whereas we the delegates, representing the American citizens
of Ukrainian descent of the State of Connecticut, at convention
assembled in the Ukrainian Hall at New Britain, Conn., with great
sorrow learn that the Paris peace conference is about to hand to
Poland the provinces of East Galicia and Kholm predominantly
Ukrainian, without consulting the wishes of the population of these
provinces as if the people inhabiting these provinces were mere prop
erty, and,
"Whereas we are aware of barbarous and inhuman treatment of
the civil population of the provinces of East Galicia and Kholm by
Polish troops which presently occupy these territories, therefore,
"We solemnly but unqualifiedly protest against any annexation
to Poland of East Galicia or Kholm, and demand that these territories
be united with the greater Ukrainia, and further we demand the
immediate withdrawal of Polish troops from East Galicia and Kholm,
and, "Resolve, that we respectfully petition His Excellency Woodrow
Wilson, President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and
the Congress of the United States, to recognize complete independence
of the Ukrainian Republic." RESOLUTION No. 2.
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
"Whereas the President of the United States in his message to
the Senate of the United States, delivered February 3rd, 1917, said
that no peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and
accept the principle that Governments derive all their just powers
from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists
to hand people about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were
property, and,
"Whereas the Senate of the United States is the empowered body
to ratify all the treaties made between the United States and foreign
governments, and, 9

"Whereas we- are aware of barbarous and inhuman treatment of
the civil population of the provinces of East Galicia and Kholm by
Polish troops which presently occupy these territories, therefore
"We, the delegates of American citizens of Ukrainian descent,
and Ukrainian residents of the State of Connecticut, assembled at con
vention in the Ukrainian Hall in New Britain, Conn., most humbly
pray that the Senate of the United States of America refuse the
ratification of any treaty providing for the cession of the provinces
of East Galicia and Kholm, predominantly Ukrainian, to Poland,
and we further protest against barbarous and inhuman treatment of
the civil population of East Galicia and Kholm by the Polish troops,
which treatment is wholly devoid of all the principles of civilized
warfare, and,
"We further respectfully request of the Congress of the United
States to recognize complete independence of the Ukrainian Republic."

RESOLUTION No. 3.
TO THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE:
TO THE UKRAINIAN PEACE DELEGATION in Paris, and to
GEN. SEMEN PETLURA,
President of Ukrainian Republic :
"The Ukrainians of the State of Connecticut at Convention in
New Britain, Conn., requested President Wilson, and the Congress of
the United States, to withold ratification of peace treaty with Poland
and to recognize Ukraine's independence. If policy fails, Ukrainian
sword will not." RESOLUTION No. 4.
To dispatch the Petition also to the President of the Paris Peace
Conference, Exc. M. Clemenceau.

10

AU ST.KO -W£ GRY

Kozcn ii ;i At la:

THIS IS THE POLISH SCHOOL MAP, 1907 EDITION,
USED IN THE POLISH SCHOOLS IN GALICIA, WHICH SHOWS THAT WEST UKRAINE IS NOT POLISH.

The shading of the right upper corner has been done by us to show the
enormous stretch of the Ukrainian territory thnt has been annexed by Poland (ex
cluding the Hungarian part of it and that of Bukovina, the latter being swallowed
by Rumania). The word Rusini means Ukrainians (Ruthenians). It should also
be noted that the Ukrainian population of Eastern Galica is more compact than
the population of the Slovaks, Hungarians or Rumanians in their respective terri
tories. Kholm is a province north of the Ukrainian Galicia. The Lemko country
is the westernmost mountainous territory of West Ukraine, a compact mass of 200.-
000 people. The Polish authorities seemed to have forgotten about it and didn't
exert themselves to polonize it, as this territory had been joined by the Austrian

emperor to the Cracow administration. So they thought it would be theirs forever,
and instead they directed all their attention to the whole of Eastern Galicia which
proved more than they could swallow.
In 1907 the Poles did not claim that Eastern Galicia was a Polish country,
as they do now. Even in this war they would never protest if the principles of
justice proclaimed by Presideni Wilson were applied at the peace conference. They
did not protest when President Wilson offered them the "indisputably Polish ter
ritories" in his fourteen points. But the unexpected downpour of troops, arms and
supplies into Poland by the Allies proved stronger than justice. Will the policy
of blood and iron again prevail?

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08954 2246

"The Convention was Called under the Auspices of the:
Committee of the Ukrainian State Convention (Rev. J. Pelechovyeh,
Chairman), 121 Beaver St., New Britain, Conn.
Ukrainian National Committee, 30 E. 7th st., New York, N. Y.
Ukrainian Federation of U. S.,. 19 B, 7th St., New York, N. Y.

The following Connecticut branches of the Ukrainian organizations
were regBresetated at the convention :
Ukrainian. National Associations.
Ukrainian Workihgmen's Associations.
Associations of "Providence."
Associations of "Free Ukraine.",
Branches of Ukrainian Federation, of U. S.
Ukrainian Dramatic Societies of Ameriea.
Ukrainian Athletic Associations "Sitch."
Ukrainian Cultural Associations "Love."
^Shevtehenko Societies. •
"Ukranian Progress" Association
Ukrainian Library Society.
"Prosvita" (Culture) Societies.
Ukrainian Cooperative Co's.
St. John Societies,
A. Bontchevsky Society.
St. Peter and Paul Satieties.
St. Mary's Societies.
' ' Ukrainian Sisterhood. ' '
Ukrainian Parishes of Conn.
Ukrainian Churches of Conn-. ,

New Eaflern Weekly <sfifi^8&> Publishing Company
New Britain, Connecticut

JAN ~2 1969