Occasionally, an embassy intervenes in special human right cases, either upon instruction from its ministry of foreign affairs or of its own volition. John H. Crimmins, US ambassador to Brazil from 1973 to 1978, recounts that his embassy intervened approximately half-dozen times a year in human rights cases. The embassy took up those cases of alleged bad treatment of a person when a particular American interest could be claimed. The Brazilian government never declined to discuss these cases by referring to the principle of non-interference. William B. Edmondson, US Ambassador to South Africa from 1978 to 1981, reports the same. Though he often explained American concerns regarding the practice of apartheid, South African officials listened without calling his demarches interference.The Afrilkaans-speaking press, however, attacked him