Colonel House informed the Foreign Secretary that President Wilson was now convinced that the Panama Act violated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty and that he intended to use all his influence to secure its repeal.

The matter, the American urged, was a difficult one, since it would be necessary to persuade Congress to pass a law acknowledging its mistake.

The best way in which Great Britain could aid in the process was by taking no public action.

If the British should keep protesting or discussing the subject acrimoniously in the press and Parliament, such a course would merely reenforce the elements that would certainly oppose the President.

Any protests would give them the opportunity to set up the cry of "British dictation," and a change in the Washington policy would subject it to the criticism of having yielded to British pressure.