New York, 14 March 1972
Confidential Personal
I am sorry if we are thought to have messed up our assignment with the Chinese Mission.
I was not happy with the idea of referring specifically to Kibel and inviting the Chinese to tell us what they had said to him. I thought this could well invite a rebuff, on the lines that it’s no business of ours who they talk to or what they say to them. Furthermore, since the Chinese must obviously know, from various Government statements, that we are looking for ways of pursuing a dialogue with them, it seemed likely that they would tell Kibel, when and if they see him again shortly, that we had been on a fishing expedition and wanted to know what they had said to him. I don’t know Kibel, and am in the dark about any earlier dealings he may have had with the Government, but I gather he is in disfavour and might not be averse to trying to embarrass the Government in some way. In fact I wondered altogether about the usefulness of a preliminary sounding here if Renouf was going in to bat in Paris.
I expressed some of these doubts to the Minister when he telephoned me at home early on the morning of 7 March, and I understood him to agree that we should make a more generalised approach to the Chinese, without specifically mentioning Kibel. I am sorry if I misunderstood him.
If Merrillees may have gone too far in mentioning the matter of dialogue, I must in any event take the blame. Frankly, I cannot see why what we have said here should jeopardise Renouf’s approach in Paris. But maybe I’m insensitive to some of the nuances involved in the operation.
[DFAT: WALLER PAPERS]