In
spite of Oppenheimer's complaint that there was nothing either to
praise or attack in the budget, his party had managed to think of a few
criticisms after all. Mr. Waterson listed them and made the motion that
had been agreed upon. He expounded the United party's objections to
certain proposed methods of taxation. He urged the government to "take
active steps to relieve the acute shortage of manpower." He proposed
that they "produce concrete plans for reducing the cost of living."
There were routine attacks, but the fourth and last item touched on a
very sore point: "to restrain the Minister of Na-tive Affairs whose policies and activities threaten the progress and
prosperity of the Union." At this the House and visitors all pricked up
their ears. For some weeks the Minister of Native Affairs, Dr.
Verwoerd, had been hitting the headlines with suggested implementations
of apartheid. Though his ideas were startlingly comprehensive
and embraced the possibility of complete segregation of the races in
all walks of life, it was his statements dealing with domestic labor
that was eliciting most comment among the people who can afford to pay
for such labor. (Many poor Afrikaners cannot, and they love Dr.
Verwoerd.) He said that the native should not serve in white people's
houses in such propinquity, and that white housewives can perfectly
well do their own work. For that matter it would do them good, he said;
look at the pioneer women of the Voortrekkers! His other statements may
not have been quite as attention-getting among white women, but they
were pretty newsworthy at that, and Mr. Waterson now recalled them to
mind.
"The Minister of Native Affairs talks—my goodness how he talks!—about 'trends' and 'directions' and he explains this and
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