NORTHERN RHODESIA: Refreshing Shift

With the hot gales of Congo nationalism blowing next door, the rulers of the sprawling, white-dominated Rhodesias were casting nervous glances at their own restive African populations. In copper-rich Northern Rhodesia, where apartheid-loving South African miners have settled by the thousands, the government has sought to ward off the independence virus among the blacks by marshaling troops along the Congo border, churning out emergency decrees and clapping African leaders into detention.

Last week, in a refreshing shift of tactics, Northern Rhodesia's legislature passed a law that promised to be a milestone in race relations in southern Africa. In the capital of Lusaka, where in the past Africans were required to make their purchases through hatches at the rear of shops, the legislative council passed a bill barring further racial discrimination in Northern Rhodesia's hotel dining rooms, cafés, movie houses and other public places. Businessmen who can prove they have suffered a heavy loss of white customers by allowing Africans to trade will be compensated by the government in the first twelve months.