No Insurance On Fruit In Suez Canal

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31499, 13 October 1967, Page 15

No Insurance On Fruit In Suez Canal

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A) SYDNEY, Oct. 12.

Australian fruitgrowers would not receive any insurance money for nearly £2m worth of apples and pears on four ships stranded in the Suez Canal since June, the chairman of the Marine Underwriters and Salvage Association of Victoria, Ltd, Mr A. F. Chesterman, said in Melbourne this week.

Mr Chesterman said underwriters in Australia and Britain had declined to accept

notices of abandonment served on them by agents of the fruitgrowers. The fruit, 400,000 bushels of apples and pears destined for shops in Britain and on the Continent, is on ships trapped in the canal since the ArabIsraeli war broke out.

Some growers have claimed they will be bankrupted if they do not receive any compensation for their losses. Mr Chesterman said there could be no cover for any claim under a marine insurance contract incorporating a frustration clause. He said the clause, which was incorporated in all the fruit contracts, excluded any claim arising from loss or frustration of a voyage caused by restraint or detainment by any Government. Four of the 15 merchant ships trapped in the Suez Canal had just had their first social caller from the outside

world since the Arab-Israeli war in June, Reuter reported from Cairo. The Rev. Otto Meinardus, a West German clergyman attached to the United States Community Church at Maadi near Cairo, visited the United States ships Observer and African Glen and the West German vessels Nordwind and Munsterland on Tuesday. In Cairo afterwards, he said the crews “feel forgotten men.” He had had the utmost cooperation from Egyptian authorities, but war conditions meant he had to leave the area at sunset and could see only the four ships. 'The most unfortunate ship was the Observer, moored alone and without electric power since it was badly damaged by fire on September 25, he said.

Morale was higher in the other 14 ships which were

moored together in the Great Bitter Lake and could exchange visits.

All ships received weekly supplies, and the Munsterland had a cargo of eight million eggs aboard, he said.

Mr Meinardus thought that the fact that be had been able to visit the ships was a sign of improving relations between Egypt and the Western Powers.

Action Settled.—A libel action brought by the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Wilson, against “The Move,” a pop group, was settled in a London court yesterday when the group apologised and agreed to give the profits of their new record to charity. Mr Wilson brought the suit after postcards publicising the record sent through the mail showed the Prime Minister sitting on a bed.—London, October 12.