CLOSELY GUARDED

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 191, 15 August 1933, Page 3

CLOSELY GUARDED

RUSSIAN OIL SHIP. MYSTERY AT LYTTELTON. VISITORS NOT WANTED. (By Telegraph:—Own Correspondent.) CKRISTCHURCH, this day. A police guard lias stood by the Greek oil tanker Irini ever since her arrival at Lyttclton yesterday. No official reason lias been given for their presence. . Officers of the Associated Motorists Petrol Company, Ltd., to whom the tanker's cargo is consigned, deny any knowledge of the roason, and the police explanation is: '"Departmental business." The Irini, which is carrying petrol from the port of Batum, on the Black Sea, is the first Greek vessel that has visited the port in 4;7 years, and for this reason niainly there was a crowd of onlookers when the- tanker pulled in. It did not, however, explain the presence of a police sergeant and two constables in plain clothes and three in uniform, and speculation was rife in Lyttelton when it was found that not even ship's chandlers were allowed on board. Newspaper representatives were allowed to interview the captain only after they obtained permission, first from the police and then from the company's manager. Some watch is always kept over oil tankers, because of the dangerous nature of their cargo, but the watch, has never been carried to this extreme. Rumour soon supplied several explanations. First, it was said that a stowaway was on board. This was eoon seen to be. without foundation. A suggestion that the police were guarding against the smuggling of propagandist literature was quickly denied, as the members of the crew, all Greeks, were allowed shore leave in the afternoon. It was against people who wished to visit the tanker that the guard was kept. The explanation, suggested by one- official, was that the vessel was being protected against outside interference. No one was prepared to suggest who the "outsider" might bo. The police, howover, were taking no chances, and the guard wae maintained throughout the night and this morning, until the ship sailed for Dunedin at 12.30 p.m.