Issue Date: April 13, 1966
Rhodesia:
UK Blocks Oil Ship
The British Navy April 10 used force (in compliance with the UN Security Council's April 9 resolution) to prevent the Greek tanker Manuela from reaching Beira, Mozambique with 16,000 tons of Iranian crude oil believed assigned to Rhodesia.
The Manuela, under surveillance of a British naval patrol in the Indian Ocean since April 4, was intercepted by the anti-submarine frigate Berwick 150 miles southeast of Beira. The Manuela at first ignored the Berwick's warning not to proceed to Beira. But the tanker stopped after the frigate signaled that it would send an armed party aboard. 12 armed British seamen then boarded the Manuela and stayed most of the day as the ship sailed south toward Durban, South Africa. The British force later left the tanker.
Greek Foreign Undersecretary Theoharis Rendis April 10 upheld the British action against the Manuela. He said Greece had "always respected and honored" UN decisions. Shipping Ministry Secretary General Christos S. Deratos said Captain George Glystis, master of the tanker, would be punished for having "lied to us, saying that his destination was Rotterdam by way of Durban and the Cape," when "there is no doubt that he was heading toward Beira." (A Greek government decree March 14 had barred Greek ships from carrying oil to Rhodesia. Violators were subject to fines of up to $70,000, 2 years' suspension of the master's license and 5 years' imprisonment.)
(Reginald Maudling, deputy leader of the British Conservative Party, discussed the Manuela incident April 10 with Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Maudling said later that Britain's action in taking the case to the UN was "fraught with danger." The Conservative Party, Maudling said, "stresses again the perils involved for Africa and the whole Western world in the use of force in any guise whatsoever.")
Another Greek tanker, the 12,920 ton Ionna V, had defied a British naval warning April 4 not to put in at Beira and had sailed to the Mozambique port April 5. The ship, recently owned by the Varnma Corp. of Panama but under charter commitment to the A. G. Morrison Co. of South Africa, had been named the Arietta Venizeleas until sold to an anonymous buyer March 12, The tanker, believed to be carrying oil for Rhodesia, at first did not actually dock at Beira but dropped anchor 2 miles off-shore. It docked April 11 after Portuguese officials authorized it to do so "to facilitate the normal movement of the port." The ship's captain, George Vardinoyanis, said he had been ordered by the owner to stop in Beira for "provisions only" and to sail on to Djibouti, French Somaliland to discharge his cargo. The Greek government April 6 had canceled the tanker's Greek registry for having ignored Athens' order to stay away from Beira. The tanker transferred to Panamanian registry April 7.
British Ambassador-to-Greece Sir Ralph Murray had warned Foreign Undersecretary Rendis in Athens April 4 that Britain would use force to prevent the Ionna V from unloading oil at Beira. In further efforts to block the delivery of the oil, British Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart conferred April 5 with Portuguese Charge d'Affaires Jose de Villas in London!, and British Ambassador-to-Portugal Sir Archibald Ross met with Portuguese Foreign Minister Alberto Franco Nogueira in Lisbon.
Lord Walston, British under-secretary for foreign affairs, met with Nogueira in Lisbon April 6 and warned Portugal not to permit ships to pump oil through Mozambique to Rhodesia. Earlier in the day, the Portuguese Foreign Ministry had reiterated Lisbon's official policy of not cooperating with the British oil embargo and of granting land-locked countries, such as Rhodesia access to the sea. A ministry spokesman said: "If oil arrives in Mozambique for Rhodesia, it will be sent to its destination."