THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, March 12, 1976 37

Haifa's Maritime Fruit Carriers Fight to Avert Bankruptcy

By WILLIAM SAPHIRE

(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)

NEW YORK — A yea- r of
economic recession in Israel
has been capped by the loss
to that country of its largest
and most successful private-
ly-owned shipping enter-
prise, Maritime Fruit Car-
riers Ltd. The company,
which started on the prover-
bial shoe-string 14 years ago
and grew swiftly to become
a world-wide carrier of spe-
cialized cargoes, is currently
engaged in a struggle to av-
ert bankruptcy.
Its crisis sterns from a
shortage of
to pay its
debts. It is said
said by economic
–. observers to need some $100
million which cannot be eas-
" - .found by disposing of
As, even at a loss. The

basic cause is Maritime
Fruit's expansion into
tanker ownership and oper-
ation during the boom years
before the Yom Kippur
War. The world tanker mar-
ket has since hit rock bot-
tom with millions of tons of
oil carriers idle.
Whether or not Maritime
Fruit can avert bankruptcy
— negotiations are pres-
ently under way in London
for a moratorium on the
repayment of principal
owed to numerous banks in
the United Kingdom, the
U.S. and- the Continent —
its days as an Israeli com-
pany are over. Early in Feb-
ruary, controlling interest
in the firm was turned over
to a consortium of creditors
represented by Ira Guilden,

Patrick Henry Precursor
to Vociferous Moynihan?

BY DAVID SCHWARTZ

(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)

The case of Patrick Moy-
nihan somehow makes us
think of another fellow
maybe because his first
name was Patrick too, but
there are other resembl-
ances.
He lived in Virginia way
back. He was a kind Of rest-
less fellow, you might ,say.
He was red haired and they
are often a bit more restless,
although you can be black-
haired or white-haired or
even baldheaded and still be
restless, but we say he was
restless because it was some
time before, as you might
say, he could find himself.
For a while, he was a
farmer.
Down in Virginia,
everybody seemed to be
growing tobacco, but
somehow he didn't much
care for it. He found that
he liked to speak and he
would speak to the tobacco
and while they were quiet
and seemed to listen, they
went on growing in the
same way as before. Then
he became a grocer. Being
a grocer is of course differ-
ent from growing tobacco.
You handle many things
like cheese and sardines
and salt, but somehow he
didn't seem able to get up
any enthusiasm for the
work. Speaking of salt,
one day, a customer came
into Pat's store for salt.
"Sorry," said Pat, "but we
are all plumb out of salt to-
clay. Come around next
week, should have some
more in then."
The customer looked-a lit-
tle dazed. ".Pat," he said,
"what is it you are sitting
on?"
Pat got up and looked. He
was sitting on a whole sack
alt.
fat realized he would
er be a success as a
ocer. Pat really then
took stock of himself.
Everybody liked the way.
he talked. Why not be a
lawyer?
So he became a lawyer —
and he was an outstanding
success as a lawyer.
Then came those troubles
with England which you
read about in history and he
became very conspicuous.
Everyone has heard of him

— his first name and last
name are both first names
— Patrick Henry.
Patrick Henry got up in
the Virginia legislature and
said, "Caesar had his Bru-
tus, Charles I his Cromwell
and George III may profit
--
from their example."
A great many of the
leaders of the establish-
ment were alarmed. They
agreed with Patrick Henry
that there were many bad
things, but it was wrong to
make such a direct con-
frontation. They said Pat-
rick Henry should have
taken a softer line. He
should have said "King
George dear, we like you
very much. Suppose you
don't give us any voice in
our affairs, suppose you do
tax us without giving us
any representation. We
are loyal Englishmen and
we shall always remain so,
be assured of that."
They said that if Patrick
Henry spoke like that to
England, they might get
some results. They warned
that Patrick Henry's man-
ner of speaking would cost
them all their friends in
England. Also they said
that America could not pos-
sibly challenge England's
power. England didn't have
all the oil, but it was the
mightiest military power in
the World of that day. Eng-
land was more than a "Third
world" — it was a half
world.
But Patrick Henry was
not stopped. "Give me lib-
erty or give me death," he
said.
Henry gathered many fel-
lowers despite the Tory crit-
ics. As Jefferson wrote,
"Patrick Henry started the
ball of revolution rolling in
Virginia."
• As a result, a great new
nation came into being,
"conceived," as Abraham
Lincoln said, "in liberty
and dedicated to the prop-
osition that all men are
created equal."
And so because they did
not succeed in hushing up
Patrick Henry,..we now have
this Bicentennial celebra-
tion.

the New York lawyer and
philanthropist and chair-
man of the board of the Is-
rael Bond Organization; and
H. Struve Hensel, a lawyer
and former senior official of
the U.S. defense Depart-
ment.
As a result of the change
of management, Maritime
Fruit is closing its head of-
fice in Haifa and will
transfer headquarters to
London. The blow to Israel
is perhaps more psycho-
logical than economic. In
recent years, Maritime
Fruit has done only about
10 percent of its business
in Israel. Of its 47-ship
fleet, only eight were reg-
istered in that country and
flew the Israeli flag. Nego-
itations are reportedly
under way for their sale to
other Israeli shipowners,
probably the national com-
pany, Zim. If the sales are
consummated, the jobs of
several hundred Israel
seamen would be saved.
But Maritime Fruit was
more than just another Is-

raeli shipping company. It
was 'a matter of great pride
for Israelis s.living proof that
their enterprise was capable
of surmounting the Arab
boycott and blockade and
transcending the relatively
narrow limits of Israel's
commerce to become a ma-
jor carrier of goods between
nations on an international
scale.
Maritime Fruit was, in
fact, Israel's first and prob-
ably only multi-national
company. In addition to
shipping, its interests
abroad include oil prospect-
ing ventures in Ecuador,.
Canada and the North Sea,

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Judeo-Christian Tie

NEW YORK — An an-
thology on the 2 ;000-year-
old encounter between Ju-
daism and Christianity, fea-
turing the writings of schol-
ars and theologians from
ancient to modern times, is
the latest volume in a series
on the "Jewish Experience
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the Anti-Defamation
League of Bnai Brith.
According to Theodore
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ADL's program and com-
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book, "Disputation and Dia-
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for Jewish and Christian
clergy, scholars and laymen
seeking better understand-
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possibilities of such rela-
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Frank E. Talmage, an
anthologist and member of
the department of Near
Eastern studies at the Uni-
versity of Toronto, edited
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The book is co-published
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