SOUTH AFRICA: Condemned by the U.N.

SOUTH AFRICA Condemned by the U.N. For the eighth time in as many years, the General Assembly of the U.N. last week passed a resolution condemning South Africa's official policy of apartheid, the segregation of whites and nonwhites. The vote this time was an overwhelming 62-3 (with seven abstentions), the only dissenters being three African colonial powers, Britain, France and Portugal. The South African delegation itself boycottedl both the debate and the vote.

Though the South African government shrugged off the U.N. action as one more example of a nation the world misunderstood, the English-language Rand Daily Mail gloomily noted that "on each occasion the number of countries supporting the resolution gradually increases," and wondered how long the government "can go on implementing a racial policy that is arousing more and more opposition throughout the civilized world."

But South Africa found an unexpected and outspoken defender in Britain's flamboyant Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, who was on a visit to Johannesburg. Monty told reporters he found it "very curious" that the U.S. had voted to condemn apartheid, because "it has much the same racial setup inside its own borders." Warming to a favorite subject, Monty added that the trouble with Americans is that, instead of furnishing "sure leadership" to the West, they go around the world saying, "What good guys we are." Monty also confided that he wanted to examine the racial situation in South Africa, but in doing so did not plan to meet any nonwhite leaders. In any event, his mind seemed already made up, for he told South Africans, "You're going ahead with solving your own problems, and that should be enough."