Letter CANBERRA, 17 October 1947
SECRET
Thank you for your letter of 15th October concerning Australian representation at Pakistan.
We have been most careful to avoid the difficulties which you suggest might arise, and you will recall that we were represented at the celebrations at Pakistan when the new dominion was formed.
Our representative then intimated our desire for early exchange of representatives, which was only delayed by lack of accommodation and other difficulty. [1]
During the last week, an officer of the High Commissioner’s Office at New Delhi visited Pakistan and was offered certain accommodation.
The next move will be to send a senior officer to Pakistan to establish an office and to carry on political reporting. [2]
We have refrained from asking the Australian High Commissioner at New Delhi to visit Karachi for the reason that we understood that it would be inappropriate for the representative at India to approach the Pakistan authorities.
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1 H.R. Gollan, Senior Australian Trade Commissioner in India and Burma, who was based in Bombay, represented Australia at celebrations in Karachi on 15 August. Agreement between the governments of Australia and Pakistan to exchange High Commissioners was announced on that day.
2 In the event, J.M. McMillan was to serve as officer-in-charge of an Australian post at Karachi from March 1948 until the appointment of J.E. Oldham as High Commissioner in May 1949.
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[AA : A1068, M47/32/2/1]