FORCE BY BRITAIN APPROVED BY U.N.

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31031, 11 April 1966, Page 9

FORCE BY BRITAIN APPROVED BY U.N.

Preventing Oil From Reaching Rhodesia

GV.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, April 10. Britain won Security Council approval last night for the use of force to keep oil from reaching Rhodesia through Mozambique, but not without a bitter struggle with African members. A series of African amendments which would have committed Britain to military force against the white minority Government of the rebellious colony were narrowly defeated.

Then by a vote of 7 to 0, with five abstensions, the resolution which Britain has been trying to get before the council was adopted.

The passage of the British resolution after a debate lasting nearly 10 hours came as a surprise.

The vote came after British Minister of State, Lord Caradon, warned that a second Greek tanker, the Manuela, was steaming towards Beira, Mozambique, and could arrive there in a few hours unless the council authorised British ships and planes to halt it. A Greek tanker, the Joanna V, has been lying at anchor for six days two miles from the Beira docks with a cargo of oil.

The Greek delegation told the council that the ship had been expunged from Greek registry and its owners and master subjected to discipline.

The master has insisted that the oil is bound for Djibouti, French Somaliland and that he went to Beira to effect engine repairs. However, it has been reported that discussions were going on at high level in Lisbon to find a way of allowing the tanker to unload her cargo in Beira. The arrival of the Joanna V at Beira prompted Britain to seek Security Council approval of the use of force. Masters’ Orders

A Defence Ministry spokesman said in London: “We all hope that as soon as ships’ agents know of the United Nations’ decision, they will instruct masters to obey the orders of the warships and that it will be unnecessary to use any force.”

The spokesman said the United Nations mandate could be carried out by the existing British sea and and air forces in the area without need for reinforcement.

The main provisions of the approved resolution included the following:

An appeal to Portugal not to receive oil at Beira to be pumped through the pipeline to Rhodesia.

An appeal to all countries to ensure that any of their vessels do not deliver oil for Rhodesia. The authorisation for Britain to use force.

The series of African amendments would have called for a mandatory break in economic and diplomatic relations with Rhodesia and called upon the British Government to “employ all measures, including the use of armed force, to bring down the settler minority regime.”

The African States had also tried to have the council include in the British draft a call upon the South African Government “to take all measures necessary to prevent the supply of oil” to the colony. The successful resolution made this request only of the Portuguese Government, which controls Mozambique, whose port of Beira is the coastal outlet for the Rhodesia oil pipeline. Those voting for the resolution were: Argentina. China, Japan. Jordan, Netherlands. New Zealand. Nigeria, Uganda. Britain, and the United States. As the United Nations Charter is an international treaty subscribed to by 117 United Nations member States which have undertaken to observe the mandatory provisions of chapter VII

when these are invoked, the Royal Navy now has full authority to act in the approaches to the port of Beira without hindrance. Arrest Authorised The resolution also authorised the Royal Navy to arrest and detain the Joanna V after she leaves Beira if she discharges her oil cargo there. The Manuela faces the threat of similar action if she tries to put into Beira. Lord Caradon beamed with relief when the president, Mr Moussa Leo Keita, of Mali,

announced that the council had endorsed Britain’s proposal. He admitted afterwards that it had been a “close call.”

Though Britain could not vote for the stronger action demanded by the African members, Lord Caradon told the council he was prepared to consider the Africans’ proposals at a later meeting if only members would approve his own resolution at once. He said the Manuela could soon reach Beira and there was barely time to instruct the Royal Navy to intercept her, if necessary. Furthermore, he said, she and the Joanna V were only two of a whole line of tankers that could get through with oil for Rhodesia if the council refused to act.

Britain needed the support of international law in order to stop them, he said. After adoption of the British resolution Lord Caradon received congratulations from

many delegrates on what was widely considered to be a major victory for Britain and a handsome compensation for the rebuff on Thursday when British efforts to get the council into emergency session were spurned by the president.

The resolution was unique in authorising a single United Nations member to use force in the international interest.

Whether the Portuguese Government would heed the resolution is in doubt. Dr. Alberto Franco Nogueira, the Portuguese Foreign Minister, has announced in advance his Government’s reservations.

A high Portuguese source accused the British of “chicanery,” called the resolution discriminatory and asserted that 600 years of Anglo-Portuguese relations in the world’s oldest alliance had gone by the board. Sanctions Warning The Greek Government has warned the master of the Manuela that sanctions would be taken against him and the owners of his vessel if she puts in to Beira. The warning went in an urgent radio message from the Ministry of Merchant Marine, in spite of assurances given by the ship’s owners to the Government last Thursday that the Manuela would not call at Beira, a Government spokesman said. It drew the master’s attention to the serious consequences of breaking the embargo on oil for Rhodesia, in which Greece is participating. The warning was prompted by a statement from Mr Nicholas Vardinoyannis, representative of the Greek-registered tanker’s Panamanian owners, that the Manuela might call at Beira, but there was confusion over the tanker’s future course.

Mr Vardinoyannis had first said the ship was heading for Rotterdam by way of Durban and the Cape of Good Hope, and had been ordered to avoid Beira. After contact with the owners he said later that the ship’s schedule was confusing and the route would be decided at the last minute.

According to an authoritative source in London, the British aircraft carrier Eagle, one of the fleet of British warships patrolling off the Mozambique coast, signalled yesterday that the Manuela had reversed course, and would take 24 hours to reach Beira, if that were her destination.