too long

I'm trying to get html file content in wordpress admin side, and I've tried simply file_get_contents but it doesn't works correctly in some wordpress versions. Then I found wp_remote_get function; this one works correctly but wp_debuger noticed error:

Strict standards: Only variables should be passed by reference

So how do I simply give html file content to variable? Thanks in advance.

I have tried:

$template=wp_remote_retrieve_body(wp_remote_get(get_template_directory_uri().'/‌​admin/templates/settings.htm'));

Filesystem API: The Filesystem API abstracts out the functionality needed for reading and writing local files to the filesystem to be done securely, on a variety of host types.

Check references: Filesystem API