Geneva, Sept. 12.
'OPE that peace would be preserved was voiced by Mr. W. J.
Jordan, High Commissioner for New Zealand, who is President lof the League Counc! a speech today at the opening of the Assembly of the League of Nations.
"We know that if peace is violated," he said, it will not be possible for any who violate it to count on the neutrality of even those countries that may appear most remote."
Mr. Jordan pleaded for an international pact for the total abolition of aerial bombardment.—Reuter.
Immediate application of Article XVI of the League of Nations Covenant, providing for League investigation of belligerent' differences even if one of the warring parties Is not a member of the peace body, was requested today by the Chinese Government through Dr. Wellington Koo, China's chief delegate here and Ambassador to France, in a Note addressed to M. Joseph Avenol, Secretary-General of the League.
League quarters are now greatly embarrassed by the Chinese Note, coming as it does in the midst of the great tension on the Continent. Observers note that it is a skillful move analogizing the present situation Europe to the situation in the Far East, The League of Nations, they said, may be compelled to apply Article XVI in a European conflict and therefore can not very well refuse the same application in the case of China, 'M, Georges Bonnet, the French Foreign Minister, left to return to Paris today after he had met various foreign delegates to the League of 'Nations, In all, he spent but one day here, holding. special confer-fences with the Soviet Foreign Commissar, M, Maxim Litvinoff, and the Rumanian' Foreign Minister, Petrescu Comnene, Representatives "of the Oslo Convention States held a meeting and reaffirmed the principles of the resolution adopted in July at Copenhagen—alfirming the optional character so far as they are concerned of League sanctions foreseen in Article XVI of the Covenant, Text of Chinese Note The Chinese Note reads. "On September 12, 1937, exactly one year ago, I informed you of the Japanese invasion of China and requested the Council of the League of Nations to take the necessary measures to face the grave situation arising—from Japanese aggression, whereupon the League and its bodies voted several resolutions which remained inefficient, "Meanwhile, hostilities which Japan started fourteen months ago assumed ever-increasing "momentum.
It is the Chinese Government's firmest conviction that the interests of the League of Nations and the general interests of the cause of Peace command the immediate application of Article XVII of the Covenant to the present situation in the Far East, "Consequently, upon the order of my Government, I request the Coun= cil for the immediate application of Article XVI, which the Couric has heretofore refrained from applying, but which, in the Chinese Govern-opinion, provides the most appropriate procedure facilitate the League's efficient present circumstances, there were still more than a thousand people in the neighbourhood.
Note concludes.
Objective of Article XVII
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.