Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-05-29
new WAR PLANS
MADE NECESSARY
Mediation Move Responsible
For Changed Program.
LITTLE FAITH IN ARMISTIGE

Original Scheme, Which Was to Forth
fly Plateau at Vera Cruz In Prepare.
ton For Advance to Mexico City, Has
Been Upset-Toughenins Recruits
During Suspension Of Hostilities.
Exactly what the war department ut
Washington thinks of the Mexican sit
uation has been learned in the custo-
mary unquotable roundabout way that
Is nevertheless authoritative and de-
signed. says the New York Tribune.
The national guard will be modified
very soon.
The war department believes the
armistice Is bound to fail.
!, Plans for invasion of Mexico that 1t
took four years to perfect have been
wiped out by the enforced delay
brought on by offers Of mediation.
These offers came just. as the swift
execution of strategical moves plotted
by the war department was about to
begin.
Other plans on a different basis.
says the Tribune. are being worked
On-plans that would not have been
considered if the army had moved ut
once from Vera Cruz.
According to an officer high in au-
thority and in close touch with WASH
ington, diplomacy has upset prepara-
lions for Mexican invasion so badly
that it will take two months to do the
next best thing.
Vera Cruz a Pesthole.
The war plan made by Major Gen
eral Wood and his staff elected Vera
Cruz as the point of invasion and al
most entirely eliminated operations
from the border. The idea was to get
out of Vera Cruz as rapidly as possi-
BILE, the sanitary engineers having
marked the place as pest hole. and to
take UP a position on plateau 2,oU'
feet high and about so miles from
Vera Cruz.
Using Vera Cruz as base, the army
was then to hold the line Of communi-
cation back to the seaport and so forti-
fy the plateau that it would be impreg-
nable. Division after division was TO
be brought up to the plateau. ready TOT
advance on Mexico City.
So quickly was the A. B. G. media
lion begun that the army did not have
a chance to execute the move. In
stead, the troops are bottled up IN an
tnsa nitary city In the lowland climate.
totally unsuited to Americans. Out
posts have been allowed only twelve
miles from the city. II the original
plan had been executed the bridge
blown up twenty-eigh miles out OF
Vera Cruz would have been safe. As
It Is, however. army engineers who
know exactly how the bridge was con-
structed reported that 1t can be re-
placed by pontoons without great de-
lay.
In the belief Of the war department.
all the bridges from Vera Cruz to the
City Of Mexico are mined.
Until the militia Is ready the regu-
lars along the border will not advance
on Mexico. Army officers laughed at
the idea printed recently. on supposed
expert information, that the national
guard might be sent directly to Texas
and trained there.
Militia to 30 Toushened.
= Staten Island has been laid out as
scene for daily skirmishes and war
games Of an elaborate nature by the
New York troops. The militia's "sea'
soning" is anything but soft as pre-
pared by the regular army officers. It
calls for the carrying of fifty-six pound
packs on the backs Of citizen troops.
who will be marched and counter
marched In the hot sun until every
ounce of useless tissue In them Is gone
and the remainder tOughened into reg.
ular army elasticity Two months Of
this seasoning. army officers believe.
would transform clerks into cowboys
in embryo. at least
When ready and tit the militia will
wait for the regular army to move and
will follow them as reserve. Mean
while the regular army is being re-
cruited to war strength. OF ITO men to
q company.
If the present force in Mexico under
Funston were to advance as condi.
lions are now the war department IL
not confident that It would not meet
with reverses The MeXicans have had
three years of hard training in the field
and know guerrilla warfare.
If the army goes into Mexico now It
IL the intention of the war department
to use at least 1J.0lm men The delay
that came with mediation and caused
change of plan will he used to harden
recruits
No hope of stable government in
Mexico is held by the army 1t believes
CarranZa cannot control the country
and it does not trust villa