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Chinese completely honourable in that the contracts they had made were kept. In that respect they were better trading partners than either the Japanese or the French.
After the meeting Mr. Fraser said to me that it might be wise to take steps to ensure that the Ministers of the present Australian Government did not unwittingly make public statements which would be unhelpful to us over Hong Kong. I said that we had arranged to give the present Australian Government periodic general briefings on the situation. For example, we had given such a briefing to the Australian Foreign Minister prior to his intended visit to Hong Kong. Mr. Fraser thought that this was wise but still believed that there was a risk that Mr. Hayden and others, given their party's philosophy, might make public statements in support of the Chinese claim to sovereignty - in doing so they would be speaking more out of ignorance than out of a desire to make our task difficult. He believed that it would be worthwhile speaking to Sir Geoffrey Yeend in the Australian Prime Minister's Office and make the general point that we hoped that Australian Ministers would be careful in anything they said publicly about China and Hong Kong. I should be grateful for your views on this suggestion.
John Holmes, Esq.,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
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Your ever Joh Lol Coles.