CALCUTTA, India, Nov. 7 —Beyond a line of giant deodar trees and high, creeper-topped walls, the house at 9 Circus Avenue, looks stately if a little forbidding.

Two sandbag bunkers, with firing slits, and two sentry boxes guard the entrance and armed Indian policemen roam the length of its sidewalk or lounge under a hastily erected tarpaulin shed that lends a touch of grimness to the otherwise peaceful scene.

The three‐story mansion, which dominates a tree‐lined road in the predominantly Moslem district of Park Circus, in East Calcutta, used to be the Pakistani Consulate. Until seven months ago it was one of the most unvisited buildings in the city because there were few Pakistanis in India and few Indians went there.

Now the green, gold and red flag of the government in exile of East Pakistan—the Bengali separatist movement that calls itself Bangla Desh, or Bengal Nation—flutters proudly over it. Beside the huge wrought iron gates at the main entrance, usually shut, is a small green plaque with an inscription in Bengali saying that it is the diplomatic mission of the People's Republic of Bangla Desh. An unending stream of visitors makes 9 Circus Avenue the most sought‐after address in town at the moment.

Hossain Ali, the Pakistani consul, transferred his allegiance to Bangla Desh and seized the building last April 18. Now his title is High Commissioner—Ambassador—in India, but nothing has changed in his first‐floor office except that there is a portrait of Sheik Mujibur Rahman the jailed leader of East Pakistan, on the wall and the air‐conditioners are not being used for economy reasons.

“My day is an endless series of interviews, which I don't refuse to give,” he said. “Never. That's part of the game.”

Mr. Ali switched allegiance less than a month after Pakistan's military Government sent the army into East Pakistan to try to crush the autonomy movement of Sheik Mujib's Awami League, which won a national majority in the elections last December on a platform aimed at ending what the league views as West Pakistan's domination and exploitation of East Pakistan.

Since the army crackdown began, millions of Bengali refugees have fled to India. In recent months the Bengali insurgents have become increasingly effective in their guerilla activities.

Mr. Ali describes his chancery as “Bangla Desh's window on the world.” In the early days of the rebellion it was the only address with which supporters and lobbyists could communicate.

Now there are other points of contact. There are 10 missions abroad, plus many centers run by private groups. The office here in Calcutta has assumed a new role—the political communications centers for the rebel government — with the leaders of the East Bengalis using it as a conduit and post office to keep in touch with representatives abroad.

Most of the time the government operates from a residence in Calcutta barely a mile from the mission. The Indian press, in reporting on Bangla Desh, always uses the dateline Mujibnagar, fictional capital of the rebel government, to give the impression that the political leaders are in East Pakistan, not India.

The work load at the Circus Avenue mission is heavy, office space is tight and supplies are scarce, but there is no clutter of files or papers on any table in the spacious 30‐room building, no litter on floors, no hurry or bustle, no noise above a reasonable hum.

The diplomats have a staff of 65, all Bengalis. The figure is almost half of the mission's original strength, the non‐Bengali employes having left. However, the staff has been augmented by literally scores of volunteers who fled from East Pakistan.

“The pressure is great,” Mr. Ali said, “but this is not a routine mission and my boys are not doing a routine job. We do have fixed office hours, but most of the time we have to work round the clock. And we are happy to.”

There are other disadvantages. All the regular employes have had their pay cut in half. There are also personal discomforts, such as having to move into smaller flats and share hem with others.

The whole upper story has been taken over by the foreign secretary, Mahboob Alam, who virtually runs a foreign office there.

The press office, in a ground-floor room in an annex, runs an elaborate press and external publicity department churning out press releases, publishing brochures and books, producing films and photographs, and even mailing Bengali drama books to volunteer groups abroad.

The owner of the house, a Marwari businessman who had rented it to the Pakistanis in the early fifties, appears to be sympathetic. He has not collected his rent‐3,600 rupees, or $480, a month—since the Bengalis took over and has not even sent any reminders.