Paris Peace Conference 860 C.00/46
The Head of the Ukrainian Delegation at Paris
(Sydorenko)
to the Commission to Negotiate
Peace
Paris, February 18 [17], 1919.
[Received in Paris February
20.]
Sir: I beg to call your kind attention to the
copies of the three notes,59 here enclosed and which I have addressed to the
President of the Peace Conference at Paris.
I am [etc.]
G.
Sydorenko
Minister of
Roads and Communications,Head of the
Delegation of the Ukrainian Republic at Paris[Enclosure]
The Head of the Ukrainian Delegation at
Paris (Sydorenko) to the
President of the Paris Peace Conference (Clemenceau)60
Sir: The Delegation of the Ukrainian
Republic with full authority from its Government, has the honour to
ask you to transmit the following note on the subject of the
Conference of the He des Princes, to the Peace Conference at Paris:
“The Ukrainian Republic, independant and supreme by the will
of the people and who have just asked to be admitted by
their representants
[Page 70]
to the Peace Conference, are at the present moment in a
state of war with the bolchevik Government of Russia, who
have sent their troops against Ukraine and broken the
Ukrainian front near the frontier of the Ukrainian
Republic.—Now they are advancing into the heart of our
country and the Bolchevik Government has not only no
intention of fulfilling the conditions laid down by the
Peace Conference at Paris to establish a truce, to retire
its forces and to cease all military action;—but on the
contrary, it has just developped its military offensive to
destroy the Independance of the Ukrainian Republic.
It is for this reason that the Ukrainian Government cannot
take part in the Conference of the Ile des Princes unless
the Bolchevik Government of Russia cease its military
operations against the Republic of Ukraine (which has
already been recognised as an Independant and sovereign
State) and also that the Bolchevik Government of Russia
remove all its military forces from the Ukrainian front.
The Government of the Ukrainian Republic can take part in the
Conference of the Ile des Princes with the Representants of
the Allies and the United States of America as it is a free
and independant and sovereign state by the wish of the
people, who desire a complete separation from Russia whether
that country be democratic or monarchial.—One knows that the
traditional history of Russia was always, until now, an
imperial policy and now she wishes to pass over the body of
Independant Ukraine to put one hand on the Dardanelles and
Suez and the other on the Persian Gulf.
Ukraine can and must live as a free State independant and
sovereign! [”]
I remain [etc.]
G.
Sydorenko
Minister of Roads and CommunicationsHead of the Delegation of the Republic of Ukraine
Paris
, February 10, 1919.
