‘RHODESIAN-BUILT OIL DEPOT IN S.A.’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31317, 13 March 1967, Page 13

‘RHODESIAN-BUILT OIL DEPOT IN S.A.’

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, March 12. The Johannesburg “Sunday Express” reported today that South Africa was supplying large quantities of aviation fuel to Rhodesia from a new Rhodesian-built depot on South African soil.

A reporter wrote that he saw the depot this week when he interviewed Mr Ben Van Den Berg, an employee of the Rhodesian national oil-supply-i n g organisation, Genta, which ran the depot.

Observers estimated that each day an average of 18 road tankers, carrying various fuels, crossed the Limpopo bridge into Rhodesia at the small town of Messina, the report said. The reporter described the dump near Messina as a dozen big tanks fed from rail tankers, each holding about

8000 gallons, which came daily from coastal refineries and occasionally from an oil pipeline outlet in Johannesburg

The report said there was no attempt to camouflage the fenced-in depot, although there were security precautions against sabotage. On the depot was an organisation called Swiftlee the name under which Genta did business in Messina, the reporter said. The reporter said that when he asked Mr Van Den Berg what Genta did, he was told it imported and exported all kinds of things. Mr Van Den Berg also refused to divulge the amount of petrol supplied to the Rho-desian-bound road tankers.

! The reporter said rumours > that oil traffic to Rhodesia was I decreasing were hard to be- ■ lieve.

He said hot dusty Messina throbbed as 5000-gallon road tankers, some with trailers, lumbered up to the border post of Beit bridge, and crossed to Rutenga, where the fuel was loaded into Rhodesian rail tankers. The only decrease in traffic on the petrol haul appeared to be in the number of trucks carrying 44-gallon drums; the report said. An Athene newspaper has reported the Greek tanker Joanna V which attempted to break the Rhodesian oil embargo last April is again heading for Beira. The usually well-informed afternoon paper “Messimvrini” said the tanker was expected to put in there with a cargo of oil within two days, but it did not know if the cargo was destined for Rhodesia. It added that the ship was sailing with British permission.

Agents for the ship in Ath» ens have refused to comment on the report. Last April the 12,000-ton tanker entered Beira port with oil for Rhodesia, but after intense diplomatic activity in London, Athens, and Lisbon, the oil was not discharged.

Author Loses Deposit

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, March 10.

The author John Creasey, whose thrillers have sold 60 million copies throughout the world, received 2755 votes in the by-election in the Midlands town of Nuneaton.