The Almaria Herald

ALMARIA VELLA — The emergency cabinet sub-committee convened yesterday evening in the Sala de los Almirantes and, after a sitting that ran past the dinner hour, resolved upon the course long counselled by Don Augusto de Cordoba: the Fuel Stabilisation Reserve is to be drawn upon in a measured and targeted manner, with monies flowing through the contingency line to the Cordoba fishing cooperatives and to the ferrymen who serve the outer islands. A formal proclamation is expected at the Chamber on Monday, but the Herald understands the instruments are already drafted and initialled.

The arrangement, as described to this paper by two persons present, bears the unmistakable stamp of the patriarch of the Bloc del Puerto. The Reserve is not to be flung open at the door, as certain voices in opposition have demanded, but unsealed by clause and by schedule — a shilling for the nets, a shilling for the keel, and nothing, pointedly, for the speculator who has lately found the Almarian pump a congenial object of attention.

"Stability is not a posture," Don Cordoba told colleagues, according to notes taken at the meeting. "It is a practice. One does not empty the cistern because the sky is dry this week." The Prime Minister, Madame Vela, is understood to have endorsed the formula without reservation, and the Palace has signalled its contentment through the customary channels.

The measure arrives at a moment of real anxiety along the moles of Almaria Vella and Sant Joan. Crude on the international markets closed yesterday at a price not seen since the winter of three years past, and the Chamber of Commerce in Cordoba — never a body given to theatrical distress — warned earlier in the week that the transport cooperatives and the fishing fleets, already bruised by a punishing storm season, would not long withstand the present margins without relief. The ferrymen of the outer islands, whose routes the Treasury counts as a public service in all but name, had begun to curtail sailings.

The scheme, as drafted, directs the first tranche to registered cooperatives through the cooperative banks, with a second tranche to the outer-island lines administered by the Port Authority. A sealed remainder — the Herald is told the figure is substantial — is to be held against the possibility of a further shock in the weeks to come. Officials close to the Treasury stress that the mechanism preserves the principle, dear to Don Cordoba and to the Crown alike, of a reserve that is drawn and not drained.

The Leader of the Opposition, Señor Renko, has in recent days called for an immediate and total release of the Reserve and, from the steps of the National Assembly, for a snap election besides. The sub-committee appears to have considered neither proposition at length. A senior official, asked about the opposition's demand, answered only that "the country has not asked for an election; it has asked for diesel."

Don Rafael de Montoya, speaking from the steps of La Mercè earlier in the week, counselled stability in turbulent waters, and his formulation — whatever one makes of its other freight — is understood to have found a measure of quiet accord in the sub-committee room. The Cardenal Marín, for his part, has urged compassion for those most exposed to the price of fuel, and the draft instrument names the smaller boats and the island routes with a particularity that honours that counsel.

The Chamber reconvenes on Monday. The Herald is given to understand that the Prime Minister will present the measure in person, and that the Crown will be represented in the gallery.