Letter NANKING, 6 October 1949
I duly received yesterday and gave a receipt for your letter forwarding the letter from Chou En-lai, the text of which and the proclamation, I transmitted immediately to my Government in Australia.
I have now been instructed to transmit the enclosed message to Chou En-lai, and would be grateful if you would do this for me.
Enclosure
His Majesty’s Government in the Commonwealth of Australia are carefully considering the communication from the Central People’s Government in Peking. Meanwhile, in view of the friendly and mutually profitable relations, both commercial and political, which have existed hitherto between Australia and China, the Australian Government suggests that, pending completion of the study of the communication, informal relations should be maintained between the Australian Embassy Office in Nanking and the Australian Consulate-General in Shanghai and the appropriate Chinese authorities for the greater convenience of both Governments and the promotion of trade between the two countries.
_On 7 October Officer moved from Nanking to Shanghai taking cyphers and all confidential and secret files with him. He arrived in Australia in early November.
_
[AA:A4145, FD6, ii]