Rhodesian Fuel Rationing Eased

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 8

Rhodesian Fuel Rationing Eased

CN.2.P.A. Reuter— Copyright) SALISBURY, March 6. The Rhodesian Government last night relaxed petrol rationing for Rhodesian holidaymakers.

This is the second easing of the country’s anti-sanction measures for holiday-makers announced recently. Earlier the Government announced a 50 per cent in- ■ crease in the foreign exchange I quotas available to Rhodesians going on holiday abroad. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said that people able to produce evidence of firm holiday bookings outside Rhodesia of at least three weeks’ duration would be eligible for sufficient fuel to drive to the border. The statement also said Rhodesians with firm bookings for at least one week at Rhodesian hotels to which they could not easily travel by air or rail would also be granted sufficient petrol to get there and back by road. CONFIDENCE Informed observers regard the statement as the first official indication of the Government’s growing confidence over the country’s fuel supplies in the face of the British embargo. The oil crisis, which was regarded only a month ago as the factor on which the success or failure of the Government’s continued control depended, has receded largely as a result of the growing flow of petroleum supplies by road from South Africa and by rail from Mozambique.

r While no exact figures of i fuel imports are known be- » cause of the cloak of secrecy, the petrol supplies are be- - lieved to have reached a level - which will enable the Govern- • ment to eke out its own fuel ; stocks for some months.