Page:The New Europe - Volume 4.djvu/197

Rh needs of our schools and our organisation, and now the Ukrainian people has compelled us to assume the entire responsibility It is for this reason that we are issuing this Universal Act to our people, proclaiming that henceforth we alone shall regulate our life.”

The Act proceeds to call upon every individual member of the Ukrainian people to help in the work, and to proceed to organise itself locally in various institutions, and then calls upon them to come to an agreement with the other nationalities living on Ukrainian territory:—

A few days later, on 30 June, the Rada proceeded to carry out the words of the manifesto. A committee of the Rada met and selected the members of a General Secretariat, in reality a Council of Ministers, to look after internal affairs:—food supply, finance, agriculture, and, all questions affecting the different nationalities of the Ukraine. Vinničenko was elected President of this body with the office of General Secretary of the Interior, while Yefremov was appointed Secretary for International Affairs. The General Secretariat was to be the executive organ of the Rada, which would become a national Diet.

The rapid development of the Ukrainian movement caused alarm in Petrograd. On 12 July Tereščenko and Tsereteli arrived in Kiev, where they were joined soon afterwards by Kerenski, in order to negotiate with the Rada. After some days an agreement was reached, according to which the Rada consented to postpone the carrying out of its manifesto if the Provisional Government immediately prepared a Bill giving autonomous rights to the Ukraine, including the town of Kiev and those provinces in which the Ukrainians formed a majority. On 16 July the agreement was confirmed by the Provisional Government after the Cadets had left the Cabinet as a protest. The main points were as follows:—(1) The General Secretariat was recognised as the highest administrative organ, but was to be supplemented by representatives of other nationalities. (2) The Provisional Government would execute measures concerning the Ukraine through the General Secretariat.