The Eastern Economist February 8 1946

Whatever the future of the handloom from the point of view of technolgical efficiency its survival and strengthening is an admitted political and social desideratum if only in the context of the question of employment it prvides. [...] THE AUSTRALIAN DRIVE Australia is bidding for greater share of the world's trade for the development and expansion of which the nations of the world are to meet this summer in the U. S. A. The typical moves that are understood to be taken by Australia may be mentioned. [...] This and the establisment of an export guarantee department of the Commonwealth Bank are two of the main recommendations of the inter-department report which has the endorsement of a Cabinet sub-.committee. [...] The agreement with Canda was of greater importance in view of the volumes and nature of the trade and of course the agreement with Great Britain in 1938 was of signal importance as it indicated the first reversal of the British policy of imperial preference increasing protection and bilateralism. [...] During the war however with the cutting off of the source of supply of natural rubber a huge synthetic rubber industry has been establisno in the United States the output of which in 1944 was at the rate of more than 2 billion pounds or more than the total consumption in 1940.