South African law holds that white man's liquor is colored man's poison. Last week, Minister of Justice Charles Swart broadened the definition of "colored" to include Chinese, proclaimed that henceforth no Chinese will be allowed to buy liquor without a special permit.
To South Africa's Chinese colony, 4,000 strong and as sober as Mandarin ducks, this was a matter of face. At the same time that he signed Swart's Chinese prohibition decree, Governor General Ernest George Jansen invited Shao Ting, 58, Nationalist China's Consul General in Johannesburg, to a United Nations ball. Under the decree, Shao or any other Chinese attending...
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