Hankow, Sept. 7. TE Chinese Foreign Office is reliably learned to have instructed the Chinese delegation to invoke Article 17 of the Covenant at the forthcoming meetings of the League of Nations Council and Assesmbly. China's request, it is understood, will be very firm, informed sources claim that this will "probably be China's final appeal before the League."
Dr. Chu Chia-hua, President of the Chinese League of Nations Union, is reported to have already cabled M. Joseph Avenol, Secretary-General of the League, urging the application of Article 17.
Public bodies in Hankow are now organizing mass meetings and parades and sending appeals to Geneva in connection with the forthcoming meetings of the Council and Assembly.
Article 17 of the League Covenant provides for the settlement of a dispute between a member of the League and a non-member state, which shall be invited to accept the obligations of membership for the purposes of such dispute.
But if a state so invited shall refuse to accept the obligations of membership, and shall resort to war against a League member, it is laid down that the provisions of Article 16 (sanctions) shall be applicable against the state taking such action.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.