File No. 5315/666.

The Secretary of State to Ambassador Bacon.

[Telegram—Paraphrase.]

Refers to department’s telegram of December 27,1 and states that the American embassy at London informed the department on January 4 of the proposal of the British Government for a division of the Szechuen line into four equal parts among the four groups. Mr. Knox says that this proposal is entirely unacceptable to this Government, as it would cancel the agreement already reached between the United States and Germany which Great Britain has approved. Mr. Bacon is directed to urge the acceptance of our proposal as the most feasible and equitable, and to repeat this instruction to London and Berlin.