Cry, the Beloved Country

Cry, the Beloved Country, Ch 21

List the points Harrison makes about the following native problems- from the white perspective:

•Crime__________________________________....

•Trade Unions___________________.....

• Farmers________________.......

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Crime:

“ Yes, of native crime. There are too many of these murders and robberies and brutal attacks. 1 tell you we don't go to bed at night without barricading the house. It was at the Phillipsons, three doors down, that a gang of these roughs broke in; they knocked old Phiilipson unconscious, and beat up his wife. It was lucky the girls were out at a dance, or one doesn’t know what might have happened. I asked Arthur about that, but he reckoned we were to blame somehow. Can't say I always followed him. but he had a kind of sincerity. You sort of felt that if you had the time you could get some sort of sense out of it.

Trade Unions:

Our servants stay with us for years. But the natives as a whole are getting out of hand. They’ve even started Trade Unions, did you know that? - 1 didn’t know that. -Well they have. They’re threatening to strike here in the Mines for ten shillings a day. They get about three shillings a shift now, and some of the mines are on the verge of closing down. They live in decent compounds - some of the latest compounds I wouldn’t mind living in myself. They get good balanced food, far better than they’d ever get at home, free medical attention, and God knows what. I tell you Jarvis if mining costs go up much more there won’t be any mines And where will South Africa be then? And where would the natives be themselves? They’d die by the thousands of starvation.

Farmers:

-And where would the farmers be, Jarvis? Where would you sell your products, and who could afford to buy them? There wouldn’t be any subsidies. There wouldn’t be any industry either; industry depends on the mines to provide the money that will buy its products. And this Government of ours soaks the mines every year for a cool seventy per cent of the profits. And where would they be if there were no mines? Half the Afrikaners in the country would be out of work. There wouldn’t be any civil service, either. Half of them would be out of work, too.
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Cry, the Beloved Country