Belgians spend a day walking

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33386, 19 November 1973, Page 1

Belgians spend a day walking

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, November 18. Belgians rediscovered the joys of walking today, when their Government followed the Netherlands example by banning Sunday pleasure driving because of the Middle East oil cuts. The Dutch were on their feet again for the third Sunday in succession, and as the Arab use of oil as a diplomatic weapon in the quarrel with Israel bites deeper on other countries, West Germany will also have a earless Sunday on November 25. Belgium expects to cut only about 1 per cent of its petrol consumption by today’s oneday ban, which follows the introduction of lower speed limits on all roads as a further fuel-saving measure. But the Belgians appear to be accepting the situation good-humouredly. The news-

paper “Libre 7 Belgique” headed its front page yesterday: "And on the seventh day the car rests.” “Condemned to stay at home, the motorist, deprived of his means of locomotion, might usefully devote a first Sunday to relearning how to walk,” the newspaper commented. “The idea is a bit frightening, true, but according to the opinion of a few daring people who have tried the experiment this exercise is really not as difficult or dangerous as it looks.”

’ Fines for defying the driv- • ing ban range from a mini- ' mum of about $4B to a maximum of <5486,000 with the : threat of up to five years gaol. I In Rotterdam, the Nether- , lands, oil industry sources : said the port’s total oil-refin-i ing capacity—normally about 85m tons of crude oil each year—would be cut by several million tons a year by Shell, i Esso and British Petroleum. : Esso refineries there has ■ announced a cut in daily pro- ’ duction of 40 per cent, from i tomorrow. British Petroleum is reported to have planned a ’ 15 per cent cut, and Shell plans to reduce its production of 26.5 m tons a year by 20 per cent. The Netherlands Prime Minister (Mr Joop Den Uyl) , said on television this weekend that the Netherlands ■ might stop exporting natural gas to European Common ■ Market partners if they refused to share the Dutch ! view that E.E.C. solidarity • was the only answer to the ’ Arab boycott of the Netherlands. 1

Oil industry executives, and Ministers from six Gulf Governments, met in Vienna yesterday but could not agree on how to implement a 70 per cent oil price increase decided on by the producing countries. __

The meeting, in the Vienna headquarters of the Organisation of Petroleum-Exporting Countries, was requested by 13 oil companies to obtain clarifications of the price increases. Eastern Europe has also not entirely escaped fuel supply difficulties. Rumania yesterday launched a major fuel economy campaign, aiming at a 50 per cent cut in the use of electricity for lighting streets, factories and offices. President Nicolae Ceasescv has said the drive was not [directly linked with the Middle East situation, but he gave no other explanation. Japan, relying on the Middle East for 80 per cent of its oil needs, is threatened (with a decline in national productivity, according to Japanese newspaper forecasts. And Japanese housewives, fearing shortages of basic commodities, have swooped on stores in three cities. (OTHER REPORTS OF OIL CRISIS. PAGE 15).