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From The End of the West Ukraine, Septimus Despencer 1919
In March 1919 the Government of Austria, under the threat of famine, concluded what is called a � compensation treaty � with the Government of the West Ukrainian Republic. West Ukraine undertook to sell to Austria certain fixed quantities of foodstuffs, oil, and other raw materials. Austria undertook to sell to West Ukraine agricultural machinery, tools, clothing paper, electro-technical apparatus, and other manufactured articles. At this time, and well on into 1920, the only possible way to execute such an agreement was to send the goods under an Allied flag and, if possible, with an Allied escort. If Austria sent her goods under the Austrian flag, they were confiscated by the first State through which they passed, and held in settlement of some Austrian debt. Each of the Danubian States claimed that the others had stolen rolling-stock and shipping belonging to it ; and not a truck or a barge was allowed across a frontier except in direct and simultaneous exchange for a similar truck or barge of equal value.
Under these Central African conditions the chief of the American Delegation of the Inter-Allied Food Mission in Vienna decided to send a � Little
Mission � to the West Ukraine, to organize food and oil trains to Vienna under British or American consort. A Mission was accordingly made up consisting of Lieutenant-Colonel Jones of the U.S. Army and myself, with two railway experts, Captain Mitchell and Lieutenant Baird, two enlisted men, and a British corporal and three British soldiers attached to us. The British were to act as couriers, any kind of postal communication at this period and in this region being out of the question. We had with us, also, two representatives of the Austrian Government, a Czechoslovak railway official, to smooth out difficulties with the Czech station-masters on our transit through Czechoslovak territory, and a very interesting person indeed (of whom more later), Counsellor of Legation von Zalozieckyj, representing the West Ukrainian Government. We traveled by rail in a private car—it was the car in which Count Czernin had traveled to Brest for the peace negotiations in 1917—and one ordinary car plastered profusely with posters showing the American flag, which in the early days of 1919 inspired, like the Pentateuch, � reverence not unmingled with awe �.
Our first objective was Drohobycz, the center of the Galician oil industry. It was not too easy to
get there. Drohobycz was at this time held by the West Ukrainian Government, which, indeed, was living on the proceeds of the oil. The West Ukrainian Government had the support of the local oil capitalists, of whom it was largely composed. The Poles, on the other hand, who were supported by the foreign oil shareholders (mostly French) also wanted the oil, and were at war with the West Ukrainians. The line of trenches was only a few miles to the west of Drohobycz. But, as this Polish-Ukrainian war had been proceeding without much change in the fighting line for some months, we did not think, when we started, that it would prove one of the more formidable obstacles to the execution of our task. It did however make it impossible for us to take the natural route through Cracow and on through Galicia to Drohobycz, as it was certain that even our American flags would not take us, across the Polish lines. The only other way was to go through North Hungary, that is to say, south instead of north of the Carpathians, to cross the Carpathians by whichever pass we found open—there was absolutely no information on such points in Vienna when we started—and to come down upon Drohobycz on the other side.
At this time Hungary was under the Bolshevist regime of Bela Kun, and everybody had Bolshevism on the nerves. It is possible that Bela Kun, who always behaved well to the relief missions, would
have let our train pass through Budapest ; but we did not want to ask him. . .
. . . Early in the morning of 19 May 1919, we arrived at Stryj, a junction on one of the two main lines that run from end to end of Galicia, and moving westward along this line we soon afterward reached Drohobycz.
Dr. Semen Wityk, President of the Naphtha Comissariat—the official organization for the control of the oil production—was waiting on the platform to meet us. . . .
* * *
Colonel Jones and myself had still to interview the West Ukrainian Government which was now at Stanislawiw [Stanislawow ?] (Stanislau). We accordingly continued our journey, accompanied only by Herr von Zalozieckyj, along the south side of the Carpathians, which we crossed by the last railway pass into Galicia (Máramarossziget � Körösmezö - Delatyn). The last station in Roumanian occupation at this date (21 May 1919) was Terebesfejérpatak. The first in Ukrainian occupation was Woronenko. Between these two stations was for the moment a political vacuum, across which no train had passed for five months. . .
We arrived in Stanislau in the early hours of 22 May 1919, . . . and were received the same morning by the West Ukrainian Ministers, Dr. Petrusiewicz, Dr. Holubowicz, and others. It was obvious even before the interview that there was no longer any prospect under present conditions of finding food for Vienna in Galicia. . .
It was now our object to proceed, if possible, to Podolia, and to interview the Government of the East Ukraine, another small anti-Bolshevist Government which was maintaining itself at this time at
Kamieniec-Podolski under the military adventurer Petljura.
The way to Podolia lay through the Bukowina, a former Austrian province which since the beginning of the year had been in Roumanian occupation. This raised a personal issue. The population of the Bukowina is mixed Roumanian, Ukrainian, German and Jewish. At the close of 1918 the Ukrainian element had proclaimed a Ukrainian republic at Czernowitz, of which Zalozieckyj who was now attached to us on behalf of the West Ukrainian Government had been the President. When the Roumanians occupied the Bukowina, they put Zalozieckyj in gaol, and there had been what he called � some irregularity about my leaving their stupid prison �. Under these circumstances we thought it as well to put him to bed in the car while passing the frontier and cover his face with blankets.
At Czernowitz General Zadik commanding the Roumanian troops in the Bukowina, gave us information from which it was clear that it was useless to hope for any food exports from Petljura ; and we therefore decided to return as we had come.
General Zadik did not tell us, what we were to learn by subsequent painful experience, that the troops under his command were about to open hostilities against the Ukrainians on the following morning along the line by which we were to travel. He told us afterwards he though we should get through before they began !
The frontier between the Bukowina and Galicia is the River Pruth, across which the railroad is carried on a big steel-girder bridge. There was a Roumanian blockhouse at one end of it and a Ukrainian blockhouse at the other, each with a small detachment of guards. The Roumanian frontier station Nepolokutz1 is over a mile from the bridge, and the Ukrainian frontier-station Sniatyn is about the same distance from the bridge on the other side.
1 Now called Grigori Chica-Voda.
When our train reached Nepolokutz in the afternoon of 23 May 1921 [?], the lieutenant in command of the station refused to allow our locomotive, which was a Roumanian one, to cross the bridge. He undertook to telephone to the Ukrainian authorities at Sniatyn to send a Ukrainian locomotive across to fetch us ; and later we were informed that this had been done, and that Sniatyn had promised to send an engine which would be allowed to pass.
Toward eight o�clock, there being no sign of an engine, Zalozieckyj, with a pass from the Roumanian authorities, started to walk along the line
to Sniatyn and return with the engine himself. The station meanwhile and the surrounding buildings had been filling with Roumanian troops. It was obvious what was impending, and we were the more anxious to get across before hostilities began. . . .
[ . . ]
Just at this moment our engine appeared round a curve of the line 200 yards away. I rushed on to the track with the two soldiers displaying the American flag. But it was too late. The Roumanians opened fire on it, killing the machinist, who had just begun to back. Zalozieckyj jumped and was lost to sight.
The rest of this story is sadly ignominious. Either the guard who had been told off to escort us misunderstood his instructions, or I had misunderstood
the young officer. At any rate, it became painfully apparent that the man now considered us his prisoners . . . He picked up the machine-gun, and made us march in front of him to his own battalion headquarters. Here we found an officer who understood French—very few Roumanian officers do—and he gave us a real escort to Nepolokutz, where we arrived exhausted and indignant and very anxious about Zalozieckyj.
To our delight, he turned up almost at the same time, having hidden by the river till the troops were over the bridge and then taken a circuitous route back, wearing his shirt outside his trousers to look like a peasant.
From this shambles I made my way direct to Paris and the Peace Conference. . . .
Little Mission, Septimus Despencer (Ralph Butler)
London : Edward Arnold 1932, Chapter 8 (pages 123 - 142).
Zalozetskii, Volodimir Romanovich, 1896- ed.
Title Das Geistige leben der Ukraine in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, hrsg. von ... V. Zalozieckyj.
Imprint M�nster in Westfalen, Aschendorff, 1930.
Descript 4 p. l., 219 p. 21 cm.
Series Deutschtum und ausland ... 28.-29. Hft.
Note Bibliography at end of each article.
Subject Ukraine -- Civilization.
[ New York Public Library ]
Zalozetskyi, V.
Title Pid osinnim nebom : zbirka novel / V. Zalozetskyi.
Imprint Ky�v : Vydannia Tva "Vernyhora", 1921.
Descript 159 p. ; 22 cm.
Donor Library of Roman Terleckyj. [ New York Public Library ]
Title Naphta.
Imprint Lemberg, Verlag des galizischen Landes-Petroleum-Vereines.
Library has:Jahrg. 6, Nr. 1 (Jan. 15, 1898)-Jahrg. 7, Nr. 24 (Dez. 30, 1899), Jahrg. 9, Nr. 1 (Jan. 15, 1901)-Jahrg. 1
Location SIBL
Descript illus. 29-31 cm.
Note Microfilm.
Semimonthly.
"Organ des Galizischen Landes-Petroleum-Vereins."
Edited by R. Zaloziecki.
Subject Petroleum industry and trade -- Galicia (Poland and Ukraine) -- Periodicals.
Add'l name Zaloziecki, R. (Roman), ed.
[ New York Public Library ]
? ? [ University of Caliornia ]
-Zaloziecky, Wladimir, 1896- Byzance / 1965
2 Details/Locations Sas-Zaloziecky, Wladimir, 1896- L'art pal�ochr�tien / 1964
3 Details/Locations Sas-Zaloziecky, Wladimir, 1896- Die byzantinische Kunst. 1963
4 Details/Locations Sas-Zaloziecky, Wladimir, 1896- Die altchristliche Kunst. 1963
5 Details/Locations Sas-Zaloziecky, Wladimir, 1896- Die byzantinische Baukunst in den Balkanländern und ihre Differenzierung unter abendländischen und islamischen Einwirkungen; Studien zur Kunstgeschichte der Balkanländer. 1955
6 Details/Locations Sas-Zaloziecky, Wladimir. Der christliche Humanismus und seine universelle Bedeutung 1948
7 Details/Locations Sas-Zaloziecky, Wladimir, 1896- Byzanz und Abendland im Spiegel ihrer Kunsterscheinungen. 1936
8 Details/Locations Sas-Zaloziecky, Wladimir, 1896- Das geistige Leben der Ukraine in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart 1930
9 Details/Locations Sas-Zaloziecky, Wladimir, 1896- Gotische und Barocke Holzkirchen in den Karpathenl�ndern / 1926
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