UKRAINE'S BARE CUPBOARD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12409, 29 August 1918, Page 7

UKRAINE'S BARE CUPBOARD.

GERMANY FOUND RUIN,

NOT GRAIN.

VAST SUPPLIES DESTROYED BY CZECHO-SLOVAKS.

(“ New York Herald.”)

Who was responsible- for the bare Ukrainian cupboard which proved such a black disappointment to the Teutons: It has just been announced by the Committee on Public Information at Washington that it was the remnants of tho Czecho-Slovak array which put the torch to that tremendous meal of wheat which the two Kaisers had promised themselves.

When Germany sliced off great pieces of Russian territory it was the Ukraine that was regarded as a particularly rich, plum—the. Ukraine pleasantly stored with grain so badly needed by the German army and the home popii latiou as well. But fortunately, the-remnants of the Czccho-Slovak army wore still stationed in that part of Russia. This army was composed of deserters from the Austrian army, Bohemians and Slovaks, inveterate enemies of the. Hapsburgs, who had seized the first occasion to surrender to the Russians and had been, reconstituted into Russian units. They had fought magnificently for Russia and agai'nst the Austrians during the Kerensky regime. When the Bolsheviks gained control of Russia there was no more fighting to ho done for the Allied cause on that front. The Czecho-Slovak army,' including. 50,000 men in line and the same number in reserve, was dissolved by Bolshevik leaders. Twenty thousand men refused to part with their weapons, howevei, and hopefully awaited au opportunity to obtain transportation to the western front, by way of the United State,,. The Bolshevik loaders mad 0 no objection to this, hut, of course, no means of transportation was provided. Ann so they remained where they were. PILLAGE AND BURNING. .

That was %vliy they were able io contribute so largely to tho disappoint* ment of t-ho_ Germans in obtaining food Imm the Ukraine. As, soon as they realised that this was the chief objective of tho Germans they began a systematic campaign of pillage and burning hi which they were assisted by the peasants themselves, who wore aroused at the thonglu that the old land owners were to return' under Gorman protection.

Not only did they destroy what they could, but they fought bitterly to prevent the Teutons taking what was left. Retiring and hampered by their lack of equipment, they stopped to meet the -advancing Germans repeatedly in the held. Their last battle, one of those confused struggles which got little, space in the cable reports, was fought near .Bachmac, half way between Kieft and Ivursk on the road to Moscow. Alter the, fight, though'the Czeoho-Slo-vaks had been armed chiefly with axes, fhey themselves buried more than three hundred Germans. The direct result of this destruction of the Ukrainian wheat supply was that Germany had to lower her bread rati.on at homo instead of increasing it, as had been promised to tho underfed people, and Austria continued to starve a bit’ more -rapidly, Certainly in Ukraine the Czecbo-Slo-vaks have had their revenge for three centuries of suffocation and oppression in Bohemia. But throughout the war they have launched .shattering blows against their Austrian and German enemies and the whole idea of Mattel ii/uropa. Although the Czechs, like the rest of the world, were unprepared to meet- the situation with systematic resistance when war broke out, since they were not armed or organised, they were foicecl into the Austro-Hungarian arm,os against their will, for not. onlv Info* 1 T 4 T" lp:,t!l,es «’ith the .illßs, but they recognised that in (hw nalioirif In T'" 0 I t,H,ir v for luu ion. ll nulcpoiuioncc.

THE BOYS OF PRAGUE.,. But although, no organised resistance could at once bo .offered to AustroHungarian domination, as early as August 10, 1914, riots against mobilisation began at Prague, and thenceforth Ozech soldiers and Bohemian nationals have been a tremendous diantegfatirig’ influence both on the castcrn'fi‘ont ! 'anq in the heart of Austria. The,'desertion'" ol the Twenty-eighth Bcgimerit in the Carpathians in the spring of; 1915 is famous. These “ Boys of Prague,” as they were known, marched over to ■ Hie Russian lines two thousand strong. Before them snapped the Bohemian flag, the. split-tailed silver lion ram-’, pant on a scarlet field,,and they swung along to the strains of their own mjli-' tary-band, singing their'national’hymn; “Where is My HomeF\,.W’“ This is only one of, -aifi mtermjhab.je;, series of such instances ' which com-' pellet! the Austrians to turn' the control. 1 of their armies over td 'Gcrhiany. Tlie German General Staff sandwiched in all Czech and Slovak soldiers vriith Germans, Austrians and Magyars, so, that mass surrenders became impossible. • But individual and group desertions continued, until immediately before the Russian revolution there were between 250,000 and 1 300,000 Czechoslovak deserters in Russia to mention the thousands of Bohemian prisoners in the hands of the Serbians and Italians.

Now, the Teutonic sympathisers among the officials of,the old. Russian regime distrusted the Czecho-Slovaks. In other words, their hatred for the. Teuton was too ardent. They were not allowed to fight against their ancient enemies. In' fact, they were treated almost like ordinary prisoners, ' and great groups of them’ were: iiehF as track workers to Siberia., where for ■want of food and clothing . thousands of them died. ;.-,- ««* IN THICK OF FIGHTING: ■

With the revolution, however, the> promptly organised their own army under their own leaders Yet it was nor i mii 1 the great Russian offensive of 1916 had been prepared,that they..wore placed on the line in Easte Galicia. when the attack' was lorfeiied, -• a Lzecho-Slpvak brigade. sweptVfdfiayavd.r and took the village of, PresoVce.". hrst town captured in Kornilov’s drive,', together with 3150 men, sixty-two officers, fifteen cannon and many machine--guns. Ray after day, as the Teutons reeled backward, tho Czechoslovaks were in the thick of it, here a cavalry, regiment; there a battery, and always', the invincible infantry, .'War-Minister Kerensky publicly complimented, them on their valour. '.-I. Thenyame the great retreat’''when the Russian morale, .undermined bv Lolshevism. gave way utterly. After of Yarnopol three regiments of Uecho-blovak volunteers, left to their fate by the Russians to the ft edit and left of them, fought until the last, tho men plunging into direct shell brctiics and the officers finally blowing out their own brains. Only three Czech soldiers were captured. These were summarily hanged. A little later Czechs recaptured the position. Three German prisoners were forced to ciit'ddwij: the bodies, and were then left danglihrf iiom the same rope ends. OASIS OF HEROISM., These arc tho official words of Gensra] Brusilov on this action:—"The Czechoslovaks, perfidiously abandoned • by our infantry, fought l ‘so that 'the whole world ought to fall on its knees before Thom. - .-, But it was only an oasis of heroism ; m /? T , ns^ _ '"’ilderness of- cowardice;' « J.lic Lzecho-Sloraks had been promised their independence by Kerensky if Rus- ' sia was able to achieve it. As it turning out, Russia was: helpless to- maintain her own independence. The eyes’ of the Czecho-Slovaks tlieu turned to America as the first stopping place, bn the road to the western front, where they could still light their old-time foe. lu every part of the wojrJd where there is a fairly large group of. Czechoslovaks they are organising and training with file hope of getting into the figlitv More than two hundred thousand o| t hem there arc, all-told—fighters, with a genius for independence and a singly pm pose. Outside they are leaning against the military wall that surrounds Austria, hewing well into it at points of weakness, while from within their compatriots are pulling dowq the supports and bastions, stone bv stone .-

In the inevitable wreckage the thromt of the Hapsburgs will be mere gilded kindling.