I desire to refer to your letter of 28th March, 1949, (Ref. 2/206)
setting forth the general views of the United Kingdom authorities
on the question of establishing relations with the Chinese
Communists, and to inform you that the Australian Government has
no comments to make at this stage on the United Kingdom
Government's views, with which it is in general agreement.

It is clearly too early to determine what form our relations with
the Chinese Communists will ultimately take. For the present we
would hope that it may be possible to deal with the Communist
authorities on a de facto basis in areas under their occupation.

The question of any form of recognition should, however, wait upon
future developments, and should be decided on the basis of full
consultation with other powers concerned.