New Britain herald., 1917-04-19
UKRAINIANS UNDER
 THE HEEL OF WAR
Populous Race of Europe Ground
 Between Military Miustones

b6lWe6Q mlulaIy MlllSlO16S When Presidemt wilson signed the proclamation setting aAide the 21st of April as . Ukraanian tag day, he was taking an additional step in ono of tho most interesting ooncomitant proces- ses of tho great European war. This Interesting prooess Is tho gradual awakening of tho American people to moro intensive Knowledge of Euro pean geography, and the important additional bit which President Will sons act now adds in this field is an opportunity to learn something about the great Ukrainians race in Eastern Europe.
 By their sufferings alone. if not by their important political history, the Ukrainians would deserve the atten- ton of the cultured and intelligent circles in all parts of the globe: and their sufferinss in the present war have exceeded those of any other large body of people in Europe 1t is claimed. For Galicia and the adja- cent sections of Russia and Hungary are all within the so-called Ukrainian territory, and no portion of Europe has been the scene of more military movement in the last three years as just this portion of the theater of war. To be sure on the western front, military operations have been far more concentrated than elsewhere in Europe. but 1t must be recalled that, in view of the narrow strip of terri tory subjected to the horrors of war for very long periods, the total de- struction is. after all, comparatively
 
 tensely. for hostile armies have twice flooded over all her area, yet even there. as compared with tho Ukraine. the sufferings of the inhabitants were less severe, for the motion of the op- posing armies had, in both cases in Poland. the character of 8 rapid flight and Q rapid pursuit, and the resources of the country were therefore not sub- jected, in the course of military oper- ations to a complete drain.
 Four Armies Retreat Over Land.
 But East Galicia and the contigu- ous areas saw four great armies re- treat slowly across their fields, each time in an opposite direction from the preceding retreat, and each time fol- lowed up by an enemy doggedly, per- tinaciously, savagely forcing his foe to yield up inch by inch of the land he had occupied. In the course of these movements Ukrainians had to flee westward into other provinces of Austria Hungary, while hundreds of thousands of others were dragged off into unwilling captivity in Russia, many as far as Siberia, where count less thousands perished through hunger and epidemic. It is to be hoped that one of the first acts of the new revolutionary government in Russia will be to nberate these unfortunates. But Galicia is ruined, perhaps never to recover. The money loss runs into thousands of millions. The people still in their homes have nothing to eat. Hundreds of villages have been wiped out. The land can be com- pared, for baroness and devastation. orly with the ''No-man's land" be- tween lines of hostile trenches on the western front, or with the sad area that has been left behind, in the wake of the retreating German army in northern France.
 The Ukrainians live in compact, unbroken country, larger in area than any other European state. Rus sia alone excepted. This country ex- tends 328.185 square miles, and is therefore one and one-half times as large as the present German empire. It comprises practically the whole of the famous Black Soil one. It abounds in coal. iron and oil, and is the granary of Europe. Its territory is included between the Carpathian mountains in the West. and the River Don and the Caucasus mountains in the East; between the northern tri- butaries of the Dnieper and the Black and Azof seas.
 Once Leading Republic. The Ukraine, once the first republic in Eastern Europe, has been divided between her neighbors. Russia holds the larger part, with some twenty eight millions Ukrainians: the Rus sians call the country Malorossiya or Little Russia" and its people Little Russians" Austria Hungary holds much smaller number. three and one half million in Eastern Galicia, 4OO,- 900 in Bukovina, and 500,O0O in the sub-Carpathian districts of Hungary. Besides, there are half million J,krainians in the United States. 2O0,- 900 in Canada, and 6O,0O0 in Brazil. A grand total of all the Ukrainians on earth in 1910 would read thirty four and one-half million, of which 32. 700. 1000 live in compactly Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainians must there fore be considered as numerically the sixth race in Europe, the five above them being, in order, the Russians, Germans, English, French and Ital- , ians. The Ukrainians constitute 8 i Slavonic nation that Is just as clearly l and sharply defined as are the Poles. the Russians, the Czechs, or the Bull 1 garians.
 Their historic roots extend as far back into the middle ages as do those