File No. 861.00/837
The Ambassador in Russia (Francis) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 18, 6.51 p.m.]
2104. Referring to my 2094, December 12, 11 p.m. Instructions and resolutions of the Secretariat of State of Ukraine received on 13th from French Embassy. Briefly summarized translations of French texts are as follows:
Instructions stating that Commissaries should be guided by decision of Rada and Secretariat with whom they should closely cooperate; that temporary armistice should be conducted with view to obtain general peace in all Europe; that conditions of armistice on Russian west front may serve as basis but obligatory corrections in paragraph 9 and 15 are indispensable; that question concerning possibility of grouping Ukrainian troops by exchange for non-Ukrainians be strongly presented; that representatives of each of the belligerents should be attached to general staffs at front to supervise accurate fulfilment of conditions of armistice; that demobilization is absolutely inadmissible, there being no right to raise this question; that hostages which have been taken in Galicia by former government [Page 652] be liberated affecting only those over fifty years of age or ecclesiastics in exchange for whom the liberation of certain classes of Russian subjects still detained is to be proposed, Galician hostages to be considered as inhabitants of a country very close to Ukrainians by sentiment and the destiny of which concerns Ukraine; that the exchange of prisoners of war is not at all desirable and that all commerce between Austrian and German soldiers and Russian soldiers be forbidden.
Minister of State states that recent events menace Ukrainian territory which can only be defended by absolute accord and coordination on the front and that therefore the Secretariat, in accord with Rumanian Government and that of autonomous Moldavia, unites the front, assuming its entire direction and informs headquarters thereof for coordination of Ukrainian front with that of Russian Republic. In order to establish necessary contact special commissaries will be sent to these two states, Ukrainian troops being advised by Secretariat that it adopts all measures necessary to concentrate them on the Ukrainian front without prejudice to other gatherings. All non-Ukrainian troops stationed on Ukrainian front shall be informed that defense of that front also preserves unity of Russian front and thus insures a peace advantageous to all the Russian people. In declaring the armistice on the Ukrainian front it is deemed indispensable to strive together with the Allied powers for immediate peace.
[For information concerning events in the Ukraine reported by the Consul General at Moscow in his despatch No. 212, December 15, 1917, see Volume I, page 304.]