Pièce - August 10, 1920 - Letter from Demetrius to Thomas

• anglais
• ukrainien

{envelope}
Thomas Gushul, Esq.
Box 209
Coleman, Alta

{stamp}: Сoleman Aug. 11 1920

Aug. 10, 1920

        Dear brother:
        Sincere thanks for Your letter.
        I sincerely thank You for explaining to people in Winnipeg that there is a big difference between You and me and that You are not responsible for my actions; I am guilty and that is my business, nobody has a right to stick their noses in what is not their concern. I know what I was doing, and who dislike it let them come to me or better yet go to a government institution.

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No rain comes from a big cloud. I was not cruel to anyone. Those who caused me pain will yet atone. I am sorry that in Winnipeg at the Ukrainian Labour Temple they believed after what I was serving and suffered for ours’ piggishness. Not once were there posts in newspapers that nobody would publish, and only me stupid. I suffered, worked hard, and they still harmed me with their denunciations. Not all of them but there were such people that I did good for them, and they denounced me to the dogs. What for did I lose such a good job and run away like a calf deep inside Western Canada? Do You

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remember Sept 1918? When they locked up The Working People and took everything under strict control? Have the comrades in Winnipeg gone crazy? It is true that even the devil with a tail himself cannot please everybody, and I confess that some people got screwed, but not because of me, rather because of their own stupid patriotism.
Thank You a lot, Tommy, for your sincerity while explaining everything to me; I was thinking something but now I do not want to have anything to do with the comrades from Winnipeg and I will mail them back my membership card and thank them for their cunning. I will not beg pardon, for I deserve the comradely thanks, not shaming.

4

Tears are streaming down my cheeks as I am writing this; you know that I suffered so terribly that I got sick, and they are so hostile toward me. You just wait!!!! Never again in my life will I help our worker. From now on, Tommy, You are my only friend among our people, the rest are enemies, and that’s who they will remain for the rest of my life, Amen! I feel pity and deep despair that I’ve got that for my conscientious work, since many times I tried so hard to do good for the prisoners that my own life hung on a hair. Why would not they confront those who

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tortured them badly. Don’t I know Rudnytskyi, Konstantyn Babii, Ius Norman and dozens of others who took money from all those locked up. Or is Rudnytskyi able to read in Ukrainian? But he was reading letters at Morrissey! Oh, what a misfortune! But they do not confront those because they are not Ukrainians, and I am one of their own, so I can excuse them. Is that so, Tommy? I know more about what was going on during the war than anyone else and I do know

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what I am talking about.
Yet I feel sorry to waste time for such trifles. Our people have never done anything good because they have great envy, therefore they envy me; and for that I will not give them what I thought about giving before getting Your letter. May the workers now know that they have lost my friendly hand – the one that once wanted to build up something the workers desire. I will neither give them that nor impede, but I will go into politics and someday I will show them who I am.
Asking for a reply
Brother
Dmyter

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