Germany in February, 1918, at Brest
Litovsk. In this connection, it should be remembered that Roumania,
too, concluded a separate peace with Germany. Yet Roumania has
continued to be considered an ally of Germany's opponents, and it is
everywhere recognized that she only negotiated with Germany because of
the bitter fact that she was forced to do so. Ukraine was in far worse
condition than Roumania when she concluded her peace with Germany.
Roumania had at least an organized state and a loyal army. Ukraine's
government was in its infancy, its state organization was slight, and
its army consisted chiefly of the remnants of the demoralized Russian
forces. The Ukrainian leaders were faced by several wars; on the one
hand by the war with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria; and
now on the other, by the new conflict with the Russian Soviet
Government. Under the circumstances, Ukraine had to choose between
submitting entirely to the Bolsheviki, in which case the country would
be over-run by Germans anyway, or making any kind of outright peace
with Germany and then hoping for the best.

Subsequent events proved that Germany never had any interest in a
permanently independent Ukraine. Toward the end of the war, she was in
desperate need of foodstuffs. Today she wants, not merely foods, but
also a new and fruitful field for banking, commercial exploitation and
the sale of German goods. Germany has grown to consider eastern Europe
as a natural market for her products. What she wants is a Greater
Russia, whether it be Czarist, Bolshevist or Constitutional. Under the
circumstances, it is more plausible to suspect the Germans of plotting
to re-establish "Russia, one and indivisible," than to regard them as
friendly to a free Ukraine.

At the present moment, the recognition of the Ukrainian People's
Republic is a matter of international expediency, because there can be
no peace in eastern Europe as long as Ukraine is subjected to any
neighboring nation. Proposals to deal with the Ukrainian people as if
they had no moral right to self-determination are an obvious
contradiction to the principles enunciated by President Wilson at the
time of America's entrance into the war against Germany and her allies.
The attempt to carry them into effect can only result in continued
unrest in eastern Europe. The relegation of all Ukraine to Russia would
mean at best the arbitrary compulsion of the Ukrainians to a federation
which, if ad