The Dutch are puzzled by the Arabs’ official retention of the embargo. The Dutch in fact signed a statement supporting United Nations Resolution 242, which calls for a pullback.

In Rotterdam’s Europoort, oil business goes on as usual. Giant tankers glide across the busy harbor to docks where workmen connect the ships to shiny umbilical pipes that drain their heavy cargoes of crude. Near by, five gigantic refineries crank out prodigious quantities of fuel for the thirsty North European…

The Netherlands have abandoned gasoline rationing. Recently Rotterdam was so jammed with tankers that some had to be sent to Antwerp in Belgium to unload.

While gasoline lines are growing longer and local rationing plans are proliferating in the U.S., fears of a disastrous scarcity of oil are fading rapidly in most of the rest of the world. To many Americans, that contrast must suggest the suspicion that the energy crisis is something that is…

The Dutch are rationing at least partly out of embarrassment because of previously instituted conservation measures that were less stringent than those of their unembargoed neighbors.

The gloom that has enveloped the industrialized West since the Arabs unsheathed their oil weapon in October lightened last week. Arab nations announced an easing of their production cutbacks—and around the world, there was growing suspicion that they never did slash oil output as much as they had…

Originally forbidden until 3 a.m. Monday, driving is now permitted after 8 Sunday evening. Police report a dramatic rise in calls to break up fights among families forced to stay together.

For Americans, nondriving Sundays are still a novelty; for many Europeans, they already are part of the regular round of life. Over the past month or so, six European countries—Belgium, The Netherlands, West Germany, Switzerland, Italy and just this week, Denmark —have flatly forbidden all Sunday driving, except for…

The embargo is being circumvented by the major multinational oil companies, with at least the knowledge if not the active cooperation of European governments.

Clearly, something mysterious was afoot. While Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, wandered about Europe promising a continued flow of oil to the Arabs’ “friends” and privation to enemies, almost the opposite seemed to be happening. In Britain, Germany, Italy and other nations classified by the Arabs as friendly…

Indonesian, Venezuelan and Nigerian oil that is destined for Canada and other nonembargoed countries are diverted to Dutch refineries.

Heavy with cargo, low-riding oil tankers bucked through the windblown South Atlantic last week on their way from the Persian Gulf to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, New York and other U.S. ports. In a week or so, they will tie up at their destinations—and the U.S. will enter a…

The Netherlands is the only European nation under a total Arab oil embargo. Den Uyl was coming under increasing public pressure for the bravely outspoken ways of his government.

THE NETHERLANDS

When Dutch Prime Minister Joop den Uyl arrived at Amsterdam’s Olympic Stadium last week to attend the Holland-Belgium soccer match, a chorus of boos and catcalls rose from the capacity crowd of 65,000. A week earlier he probably would have been cheered.

The difference a week made lay…

Oil production will be lowered again this month. In The Netherlands, Prime Minister Joop den Uyl pedaled to work on a bike, and a strict ban was imposed on Sunday driving.

Rushing to work last week, John Doe, American, swung his car onto the freeway—only to discover that the posted speed limit had been reduced from 60 m.p.h. to 50 m.p.h. When he stopped at a gas station for a refill, he learned that overnight the price had gone up…

Because of Dutch support of Israel, tanker traffic into Rotterdam, the world’s largest oil port, will be slashed 70% by the end of this month. The ban will be felt in the entire Common Market.

Like a great natural disaster, the oil drought caused by the Arabs’ cutback on production spread ominously through the industrial nations last week. Despite glaring signals of severe shortages ahead, leading consumer countries from Germany to Japan were in disarray. They often worked at cross purposes as each scrambled to…

Five middle-eastern countries extended the oil export embargo to The Netherlands for allegedly offering alternative transit facilities for Soviet Jews emigrating to Israel.

Throughout the cease-fire diplomacy of last week, the Arabs kept tightening their oil blockade of the West. Production cutbacks deepened; export embargoes spread. By week’s end it was clear that after the shooting stops in the Middle East, the U.S., Europe and Japan will still be facing a war of…