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The New Europe]
[20 December 1917

THE POLICY OF THE UKRAINE GOVERNMENT

for the security of their rights and freedom of self-government in questions of their national life, and we instruct our General Secretary for Nationality Questions to draw up in the near future a measure for national personal autonomy.

“The food question is the foundation of the power of the State at this difficult and responsible moment. The Ukrainian National Republic must make every effort to save itself both at the front and in those parts of the Russian Republic which need our help.

“Citizens! In the name of the National Ukrainian Republic in federal Russia, we, the Ukrainian Central Rada, call upon all to struggle resolutely with all forms of anarchy and disorder, and to help in the great work of building up new State forms, which will give the great and powerful Russian Republic health, strength, and a new future. The working out of these forms must be carried out at the Ukrainian and all-Russian Constituent Assemblies.

“The date for the elections of the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly is fixed for 9 January, 1918, and the date for its summoning, 22 January, 1918.

“A law will be immediately published regulating the summoning of the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly.”

Austria, Hungary and the Slavs

[In No. 59 of The New Europe we published a detailed report of the important Polish debate of 9 November in the Austrian Parliament, in the course of which a number of prominent Slav deputies attacked Hungary for its share in provoking the war and its gross oppression of the non-Magyar nationalities. This gave rise to a whole series of interpellations and protests in the Hungarian Parliament, the following summary of which throws considerable light upon the Magyar political outlook.]

Baron Perényi fiercely denounced the “disgraceful, impertinent and criminal” attacks of the Czechs upon Hungary’s integrity.

“Worse than the highwayman who by armed force tries to rob me of my property, is the burglar who uses my momentary embarrassment in order to stretch out a greedy hand towards my jealously guarded treasures.” The treasonable activity of the Czechs will be greeted by the Entente and will provide Mr. Lloyd George with material for one of his great speeches. “I would gladly assume that only a few individuals had degraded themselves to be agents of the Entente and pupils of Masaryk, Koníček or Kopecki; of Masaryk who till now only wanted to make a republic of Bohemia, but now, according to his statement in the Daily Chronicle, would like to divide up the whole monarchy between Czechs, Italians, Serbs, and Roumanians; of Koniček-Gorski, who aimed at an autonomous Czech kingdom under a Russian Grand Duke, or of Kopecki, who has selected an English prince as king. Unhappily it is not a mere matter of individuals, but, as the Premier has admitted, of great and powerful parties.

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