Canberra, Jan. 5.
Extension to Australia's trade representation abroad to include India was made known, when the Minister for Commerce, Senator George Mc-Leay, announced the Government's decision to appoint Mr. H. R. Gollan of Bombay as Australian Trade Commissioner in India. Mr. Gollan has been in India for the past two years as the manager for the Australian National Travel Association.
The Minister added that an office will be established at Calcutta from which the Trade Commissioner and an Assistant Trade Commissioner will cover British India and Ceylon, "The question of appointing a representative to India has been under consideration since 1937, when the Federal Advisory Committee on Eastern Trade strongly urged the Commonwealth to do so," said the Minister, "The increasing importance of our trade with India, combined with the improved competitive position of Australian exporters to that market following the implementing of the United Kingdom-India Trade Agreement, ip responsible for the present decision. A further factor is ihe greater dependence of importers in India on Australia as a source of supply since the outbreak of war when the usual sources of supply of her import requirements—namely the United Kingdom and certain Continental countries have not been avail-
By the extension of our Trade Commissioner Service to India, Australia has achieved a comprehensive cover of the principal countries bordering the Pacific and which, from a trade point of view, are of increasing importance to this country."—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.