Evening star., 1938-04-23
According to, Plan.'

On those recurring occasions during
the World War which found the German
Army IN retreat, general headquarters
invariably proclaimed that the movement
toward the rear was according to plan"
Withdrawal was always to new position
prepared for strategic purposes" in an
ticipation Of just such an emergency.
Never was 1t admitted that anything re-
motely resembling defeat was responsible
for the retirement.
There is q reminder of these German
stan alibis In Premier Konoyes explana-
ton Of the deadlock" which has halted
the Japanese Army in China. Despite
iron censorship, the Japanese public has
gradually become. aware that there has
been little or no forward movement in
the war zone for four months. The only
news allowed to leak out has consisted
OF a dull and repetitious narrative OF
Chinese counter attacks" periodically
repelled at various points in far-fung
territory long ago reported occupied"
The lever victorious army of the Son of
Heaven never chronicles reverses. Thus,
faint echoes OF Chinese successes, such
as the rout Of the invaders at Taierh-
chwang, are derisively dismissed as enemy
propaganda. For all that the japanese
man in the street knows the island
forces rule the roost in China. He has
no inkling Of the astounding revival of
morale and fighting effectiveness which
has enabled Chang Kai-sheks armies
to hold their Hindenburg line along the
Lung-hai and Tientsin-Pukow railways
so irresistibly that Japan's supreme OBJ
jective-conquest of Shantung and union
Of the tremendous areas she has occupied
in North and Central China-is still
remote from attainment. Rising popular
curiosity, not unmixed with anxiety, over
the stagnation at the front finally un-
sealed Premier Konoyes lips this week.
Japan, he extenuates, has not aban-
doned the aim he announced in Janu-
ary-to destroy the Chinese National
government. But firing guns all day Is
not the only method Of achieving that
end" the Premier adds, recalling Tong
intervals between battles even during the
Russo-Japanese War" He adjures the
country that military operations are
being carried out in accordance with a
definite program" Japan, in other
words, paraphrasing our New Dealers,
planned 1t that way"
OF course, she did nothing OF the sort.
What she planned was sixty or ninety
day war over the North China incident"
instead of the ten months of full-nedged.
II undeclared, hostilities which super
vened In the widest flights of her
imagination Japan did not envision a
China still fghting-and more determin.
edly than ever-after Peiping, Tientsin,
Shanghai and Nanking had fallen. It
could not have been according to plan"
that the Japanese find themselves facing
national bankruptcy to overcome the
once despised foe. Nor can it have been
any part of their plan that Great Britain,
because Of the italian accord, is sud-
denly free to assert herself in the Far
East and resent Japanese attempts to
obliterate British influence in China.
A herculean effort is indicated, to
enable Japan to recover the military
initiative in Shantung and retrieve shat
tered prestige. But for Premier Konoye
to make believe that everything is going
according to schedule is arrant buncombe
which, as many rumblings at Toxic are
showing, may not be permanently pal
atable to q patriotic but disillusioned
nation.