796     THE PARS PEACE CONFERENCE, 1919, VOLUME V
ritories of the former Russian empire, and this compelled the State
Secretariat of the Ukrainian Republic to extend its aid to the (Gov-
ernment of Eastern Ukraine with which Galician Ukraine had formed
a federative union. Reinforcing continuously the anti-Bolshevik
front from Roumania to Pripet marshes, the Government of the West-
ern Republic has fulfilled a part of the mission that had been imposed
upon it by history; while the Ukrainians under the old Czarist regime
were deprived of the conditions which might have developed their
social and political life, their brethren in Galicia and Bukovina,
thanks to their work, developed their own institutions, and were en-
abled since the middle of the 19th century to create some appreciable
amount of social experience and spirit of initiative, qualities indis-
pensable in the life of an independent State. This is the reason why
Western Ukraine and its Government believe that their most impor-
tant task, in the very interests of the European culture, is to be the
Piedmont of the whole Ukraine by supplying same with military and
civic forces. Only these creative internal forces are able to achieve
the pacification and organisation of liberated Ukraine. With this
object in view the principal task is the struggle against the Bolshevik
imperialism, against that expansion of civic and political experiment.
If this task is not achieved yet as it should have been, if a part of
Ukrainian territories has been subjected to Bolshevik ravages, the
reason is that the Ukrainian army, instead of expelling the Bolsheviks
from its country and building foundations for law and order, is
obliged to defend its territory against Polish invasion. That is how
the Poles are working hand-in-hand with the Red Guards in order
to crush this Ukrainian Piedmont, while the Ukrainians have pre-
vented a junction of the Russian Bolsheviks with the Hungarians,
preparing thus the fall of the latter.
The best proof that the Ukrainian Government does not entertain
any imperialistic plans is in the fact that it conducts the war against
the Poles exclusively under compulsion, and that it has protested
through diplomatic channels only against the partial occupation of
the Ukrainian Bukovina by Roumanians and Hungarian Ruthenia
by the Czecho-Slovakia; believing that the Peace Conference will
settle these differences in the spirit of national equity, in the same
manner, in order to give proof of our moderation and our confidence
in the Allied Powers, we declare in the name of our Government
our acceptance in principle of the proposition which has been given
to us. But we believe that it is indispensable, both in our interest
and in the interest of all concerned, to make in some articles of
this proposition the following modifications which we shall endeavour
to expound in the following lines:-
ARICLE L
Accepted without reservation.
ATICLE II.
We request to alter the demarcation line on two points:


a