Canberra, 23 October 1970
Confidential Personal
Many thanks for your letter of 15th October1 which has just arrived. We have been giving a lot of thought to the China problem and have been trying out various ideas for size, including the approach you describe. The time before the Senate elections2 is hardly a propitious one for directing Ministers’ attention to this problem. But come December, we shall try to get things moving. Our estimate is that the Albanian resolution will be very close and could go either way by a very small majority of one or two votes. The vote for the ‘important question’ seems relatively secure this year but not next year. We therefore must move to a new position fairly quickly.
We are in fact, working on a more devious version of your own idea—namely the notion of conflicting boundaries. Taipeh claims Taiwan, the twenty-one mainland provinces, Tibet and Mongolia. Peking claims the twenty-one provinces, (I think that is the right number) Taiwan, Tibet, large stretches of Soviet Territory but not Mongolia. Australia does not feel obliged to accept either set of claims but recognises that there are two sovereign Governments each with competing claims etc.
[DFAT: WALLER PAPERS]
1 Document 140.
2 Separate half-Senate elections were held on 21 November 1970.