Evening star., 1938-02-19
Japan's Costly Effort.

AS the conquest of China proceeds,
though at snails pace, compared to
the promenade Toxic expected it to be,
1t becomes daily more apparent that the
one ally upon which the Chinese can
now depend, to hamper, if not to over
come the invader, is the progressive
bankruptcy Of Japan. After more than
half year of prodigious effort by an
army OF million men, the aggressor is
still far from his objective. China has
waged losing fight but she is not con-
'quered. Even today, with both his for
mer capitals, his two commercial strong
holds and whole provinces in the enemys
hands, and with his main armies scat
tered and decimated, Chang Kai-shek
hangs grimly and gamely on Mid
February finds his troops locked in a
titanic struggle with great and mobile
Japanese forces in Central China At
Immediate stake are Suchow, where i'm
mense Chinese concentrations are in
imminent danger of Sedan" envelop-
ing movement; Kaifeng, all-important
point on the Lunghai railroad backbone
OF Chiang's east-west transportation sys-
tenn. and Chengchow, strategic junction
OF the north-south Peiping -Hankow rail-
road with the east-west line. To get at
either Kaifeng or Chengchow, capture
OF which would almost effectually pre-
vent further contact between Chiang's
northern and southern armies and
gravely imperil Suchows force of 30O,-
600 or 100000, the japanese must first
cross that great natural defensive bar
rier, the Yellow River. BY the employ
ment OF shrewd guerrilla tactics, Chiangs
shifty divisions have been marrying the
foe with increasing success. They have
not liberated themselves from danger, or
by any means smashed Japan's strategic
drive for Central China, but they have
slowed up the invaders advances as ef-
fectively as he was held before Shang-
hal, weeks and months beyond Tokio's
calculations.
Tell-tale evidence of how ruinously ex-
pensive delayed victory is proving has
just come officially to light. The Japa-
nese government on Thursday earmarked
another 1892 900 900 to continue the
undeclared war; This latest contribution
brings the bill for seven months of cam
paigning to s2,l46, ,0OO, 900, or an average
OF over 100000 900 month. The new
appropriation, ticketed as extraordinary
military expenditure" is supplementary
to the regular army and navy budget.
Already the attempt to subjugate China
has cost Japan more than four times as
much as the total for the Sino-Japanese
War of 189495 and the Russo-Japanese
War of 19O4-05 combined.
How long can the island empire stand
the strain of struggle eating up
$10,0O0,000 a day-a struggle that shows
no sign of ending? Japan's remaining
gold resources are authoritatively re-
ported to have shrunken to $780, 900.
Except for such credits as her reduced
exports vicariously create, she is with
out means of replenishing her evaporat-
ing reserve Having contrived to weld
Chinese nationalism into 2 determined.
II not triumphant, fighting element,
Japan faces stubborn and costly resist
ance at the front and cumulative eco
nomic disintegration at home 1t is a
combination that may yet wreck her
dreams of mastery and glory.
Yesterdays removal of General Matsui
as commander in chief in China tells
louder than words the full story of