of
Witwatersrand and has from time to time endowed it in one way or
another. As everybody knows, universities are hotbeds of
radicalism—Wits University especially, because it accepts native as
well as white students. Indeed it seems probable that if the
Oppenheimers weren't so important to the country's economy they
wouldn't be suffered at all. It is not long since a Minister, enraged
by a criticism from Harry in the House, shouted across to the
Opposition benches, "Perhaps we'd better raise taxation on the mines.
How would you like that?"
"They talk," said Sir Ernest. "They talk, but they don't carry out half what they threaten against us."
Harry
is not quite so confident, quite possibly because he is very much in
the thick of things and gets around a great deal more than his father.
It is one thing to observe the parliamenÂtary battle from your own
home, and quite another to be taking part in it. As for getting around,
in a very literal sense Harry is constantly on the go. He is deputy
chairman of Anglo American as well as director of De Beers and an
imposing list of other companies. Quite apart from the talent required
for these various tasks, it isn't easy to manage them all from a
geographical point of view. Harry's main business office is, of course,
in the Anglo American building in Johannesburg, and he is domiciled in
that city, but the House of Assembly is in Cape Town, eight hundred
miles off. Therefore when the House is sitting he spends the week in
Cape Town, where he and his wife have found and refurbished an old
house in the middle of the Malay quarter, near the parliamentary
buildings. His wife Bridget doesn't mind commuting on this rather
breath-taking scale, but it all takes time. Harry flies back to
Johannesburg for long weekends and attends to his business
