Canberra, 16 February 1972
Secret
China Policy
I share Mr Cook’s misgivings about the wording of the penultimate sentence of the Minister’s paragraph 10.1 I am less sure about his proposal that it be simply excised.
2. The bald statement that ‘my Department has not made a firm recommendation to me’ could be interpreted, if the sentence in question is omitted, as meaning that the Department itself had reached no definite view or conclusion on one of the most important foreign policy issues facing Australia in 1972. This could be misleading both to Cabinet and to the historian. I would prefer therefore to preserve the thought in the Minister’s sentence but to have it read:
‘It is fair to say that excluding political factors, the advice of my Department would be in favour of recognizing and entering into diplomatic relations with the PRC and, in consequence, accepting the PRC’s condition of breaking diplomatic relations with Taipei.’
3. This suggested amendment might still expose the Department to charges of ‘capitulationism’ from some quarters but this seems an acceptable price to pay for having our position stated accurately on the record.
[NAA: A1838, 3107/38/18, xxiii]
1 See Document 298.