FAR EAST: Hot Cargo

The Finnish tanker Wiima, the first ship to try to run jet fuel into embargoed Red China (TIME, Feb. 16), was within 1,500 miles of China when her master received radioed orders from her owners to halt. Early one morning last week, the dirty, dumpy Wiima, loaded to the Plimsoll line with her 7,000-ton cargo, dropped anchor 20 miles from Singapore. "I am waiting," said her skipper, "for further orders from my owners. To run to China is a great risk, but it is my job, and my crew is in good humor."

In Helsinki, Millionaire Shipowner Antti Wihuri, frightened by the sudden glare of publicity, tried to decide whether he should risk his ship and the wrath of the West by ordering the Wiima on, or break his contract with the Communists by ordering her to cancel delivery. At week's end, distraught Owner Wihuri fled to the privacy of a hospital bed, insisting as he went that the cargo which the Wiima took aboard in Red Rumania really wasn't aviation oil, but domestic oil for the lamps of China. "That's what it says in my contract. I believe my contract."