Guest From England Tells Of Ukrainian Life on British Isles (12/31/77)

Guest From England Tells Of Ukrainian Life on British Isles

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Touring the United States recently, a prominent figure in the Ukrainian community in Great Britain visited Svoboda Tuesday, December 20, and told UNA executives and Svoboda editors of the life of Ukrainians on the British Isles.

Ilya Dmytriw, acting president of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, said that there are some 33,000 Ukrainians active in community life in England. He said of that number, there are some 12,000 youths who have been born in England.

Mr. Dmytriw, who was accompanied by Andrij Sokolyk, secretary of the Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine, said that 33,000 Ukrainians represents two-thirds of all Ukrainians in England.

He said that there are other Ukrainian umbrella-like organizations in England, but their membership and scope is far less that of the Association's. Mr. Dmytriw said that there are some 17,000 individual members of the Association divided into 70 branches.

Ukrainian youth in England, as in other countries, are active in the Ukrainian Youth Association (SUM) and Plast, with the former organization having more members, explained Mr. Dmytriw.

Mr. Dmytriw feels that some 40 percent of all youths in England born in the last 25 years speak fluent Ukrainian. The remainder, he said, does not speak the language as well.

While all youths born in England or the Commonwealth are subject to the British crown, older persons, who settled there after the war, are not accepting English citizenship readily, said Mr. Dmytriw. He explained that on the citizenship applications nationality is decided by government and no by ethnic origin. This means that people born in western Ukraine must put Polish or Austrian as their nationality and those born in eastern Ukraine - Russian. He said that Ukrainians are opposed to this.

Mr. Dmytriw said that non-Ukrainians in England are surprised at the organizational network of Ukrainians in Britain.

"People were surprised that we managed to organize thousands of people on a 24 hour notice to come to London from across England for a demonstration against Shelepin a few years ago," said Mr. Dmytriw.

After the discussion Mr. Dmytriw was taken on a tour of the premises.

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