Washington, Mar. 21.
The United States delivered a formal protest to the German Embassy last night against Nazi military invasion of Czecho-Slovakia.
Official sources said the Note was one of the sharpest ever dispatched by the United States in peace time. Some quarters privately expressed the conviction that it might lead to a rupture in relations between Berlin and Washington.
The Note was reported to condemn in blunt terms Germany's acquisition of Czecho-Slovakia as a violation of international law and a threat to world stability.
The State Department instructed Mr. Wilbur J. Carr, United States Minister in Prague, to close the American Legation. This reduces United States representation in Prague to a Consulate-General.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.