Word: beira
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Strained Economy. The hot pursuit of guerrillas into Mozambique seemed an almost suicidal provocation, since Smith's government, primarily for economic reasons, cannot afford to alienate Mozambique. Landlocked Rhodesia sends more than half its exports (principally tobacco, asbestos and nickel) through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean ports of Beira and Maputo (formerly Lourenço Marques); Machel could cut off those lifelines. Indeed, at week's end Mozambique authorities arrested 16 Rhodesian railwaymen at the border station of Malvernia, forcing Rhodesia to close the line to Maputo in protest (the Beira line was unaffected...
...fear is that the Cubans might move to Mozambique and join the black Rhodesian guerrillas based there in full-scale warfare against Ian Smith's white regime in Rhodesia. That worry was sharpened last week by reports that Soviet tanks had been landed at the Mozambique port of Beira...
...Portuguese depart, both manufacturing and agriculture have sagged. Crop levels this year for tea, tobacco, cotton and cashew nuts have dropped sharply. At the port cities of Nacala, Beira and Lourenço Marques, efficiency is down 80% and pilferage has doubled in the past year. "What worries me," said a black civil servant, "is that Machel doesn't, seem to care if the standard of living falls here. In fact I think it fits in with his Maoist ideas. Maybe the camaradas [comrades] will take it in the countryside, but sooner or later he will have an urban...
Fully 80% of Rhodesia's exports pass through the Mozambique ports of Beira and Lourenso Marques. Closure of these vital outlets would mean swift economic strangulation for Rhodesia. A much longer rail route exists through Botswana to South Africa's ports. Last month, however, Botswana's President Sir Seretse Khama announced that he Intended to take over the rail line, and he might well close it to Rhodesian traffic. Thanks to a crash construction program, a direct rail link to South Africa was recently opened, but this new single-track line cannot possibly handle all the nation...
...southward into areas where most of the white population of 220,000 out of a total of 8 million is concentrated. Guerrillas attacked the railway to Rhodesia for the first time this year. Only two weeks ago, they ambushed traffic on the main road linking the second city of Beira (pop. 400,000) with the capital of Lourenço Marques (pop. 700,000), killing three truck drivers. Such events temper optimism with apprehension...