THE UKRAINE.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 6969, 30 January 1918, Page 4

THE UKRAINE.

According to th« cables in Wednesday's issue an auieement has been reached at Brest Litovdk between the Central Powers and the Ukraine,ui;der which the war terminate! and both parties will immediately resume ecoiioaiic relations. Befure the war little was ever heard of the Ukrai-e. "l'he very name," remarked a recent contributor to the New Europe magazine, "hns fallen into oblivion in the West, but that it is not a mere modern irVfi;:tion is ahowi by tba rumcrcus Lnuka devoted to Ukraine events whica were published in EngHiii es I jig ago ca the 17t*j centu y. 'I'll? word signifies 'border,' «'d took its origin-! from tfce debatable couitiy which tben Ijv between the three un which; rivals of those daya, Turkey, [h laud, and Muscovy. But the Urrit r.y itihHbitated by Ukraniaig streiclses far beyond this border country, and its inhabitants were cemmorly known ss Little Russians, or in Austria as Ruthenes, until gradually "Ultrar.ian* has come to be accepted as the national name. Today their numbers are estimated at Borne 20 to 25 millions on Russian soil, occupying Fodolia, Volbynia, Kietf, and Cfiolm, and stretching far to the east of the Dnieper, to the Sea of Azov and beyond; four millions in Eastern Galicia aud Hukovina, and half b million in the Carpathian districts of Hungary." The Ukraine ccuipiises the rich graingrowing districts of which Odessa ia the veutre, and would make ■ very welcome addition to Austrian territory. But though the Ukranians have little for which to thank Russia, which under the older regime oppressei the people, and for many years not only forbade the use of the Ukranian language but decreed triL t such a language did not exist, and never had existed, they have no particular reason to welcome the idea of being thrown into Austria's hands. Whatever, therefore, might have been the attitude which they adopted if circumstances hsd been differed, opposition to the Außtrians aad to the Bolsheviki, who want to conclude peace with both Austria and Germany, was more or less forced ituon the Ukranians, and their combination with the Cossacks of the Don. Kuban, Orenburg, and Uiale, would provide an army of fighters who would probably be more than a match for any forca that the Boliheviki could eend against them.