Diplomacy: A Hard-Nose Gets Snubbed

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It was a harsh enough insult. When South African State President P.W. Botha paid a "private visit" to France last week, he was greeted at Orly Airport not by Premier Jacques Chirac, as diplomatic practice would normally dictate, but by the Foreign Ministry's chief of protocol. Chirac explained the snub by saying that any contact with Botha "would be considered a breach of solidarity with our African friends."

Botha was in France to dedicate a museum to the South African dead in the two World Wars, but even those ceremonies were skipped by the French Secretary of State for Veterans. If French officialdom seemed intent on ignoring Botha, , others were not. In Paris, three bombs exploded at the headquarters of companies with links to South Africa. No one was hurt. The terrorist group Action Directe took responsibility for the blasts.