Cottonwood chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1917-current, 1918-08-09
HUNS DIDN'T GET
/ UKRAINE GRAIN
It Was Burned There by Rem
| nantS of the Czecho-S Iovak
Retiring Army.
TOUCH TEUTS IN STOMACHS
Food Allowances Reduced, and Star
walton in Some Places Is Appar-
ent-Take Revenge for oppres-
sive Treatment Of Bohemia.

Washington.-Amld the many easy
triumphs which enabled the TeutOns
this year to slice great sections from
the map of Russia, like coupons from
a bond, Germany and Austria both suf-
fered one frightful disappointment.
And the pang was In the weakest part
of their political anatOmy-the cOllec-
tive stomach of their peoples.
The grain Of which the two kaisers
expected to plumber the Ukraine was
not there-at least there was so little
of it that Germany had to lower her
bread ration, while Austria continued
to starve bit more rapidly. The sup
plies had been burned.
These fires were lighted, with a kind
of poetic justice, by the remnants of
the Czecho-Slovak army-deserters
from the Austrian ranks and invet-
crate enemies of the Hapsburgs, who
had been reconstructed into Russian
military units under the Kerensky
regime and fought so splendidly for
Russia before the whole nation col
lapsed from the gnawing of the boil
Sheviki
Fortunate for the Allies.
Until March of this year this Czecho-
Slovak army had been stationed in tho
Ukraine-50,000m men in line and $4,000
more in reserve. Then bolshevik rep
resentatives dissolved their organiza-
ton and took away their arms, though
about 10000 refused to part with their
weapons. They were given promises
that they would be allowed to leave
Russia for the United States, but, of
course, no means of transportation
were provided. And so they remained
where they were.
1t was fortunate for the allies that
they did. AS soon as they realized
that Germany's chief objective in
Russia was the Ukrainian grain sup
ply they began systematic campaign
of pillage and burning, in which they
were assisted by the peasants them
selves, aroused at the thought that
the old landowners were to return I'M
der German protection.
The evidence that the Czecho-Slo-
walks were successful is incontestable.
Count Czernin, Austro- Hungarian
prime minister until his little ex-
change Of pleasantries with M.
Clemenceau, placed the responsibility
for the bare Ukrainian cupboard on
the shoulders of the Czecho-Slovaks.
German representatives in the Aus
trian reichsrath repeated the charge 10
greater details. A Magyar deputy in
the Hungarian parliament recently de-
clared that the Czecho-S lovak army in
Ukraine had burned or taken away
everything of value.
Had Their Revenge.
Not only did they destroy what they
could, but they fought bitterly to pre-.
vent the Teutons taking what was
left. Retiring and hampered by their
lack of equipment, they stopped to
meet the advancing Germans repeat
eddy in the field. Their last battle,
one of those confused struggles which
get little space in the cable reports,
was fought near Bachmac, halfway
between Kieff and Kursk on the road
to Moscow. After the fight, though
the Czecho-S lovaks had been armed
chiefly with axes, they themselves
buried more than 300 Germans.
Certainly in Ukraine the Czecho-
SlOvaks have had their revenge for
three centuries of suffocation and
oppression in Bohemia. But through
out the war they have launched shat
tering blows against their Austrian
and German enemies and the whole
Idea of Mittel Europa.