Basutoland: A Friend for Verwoerd

After 97 years under British rule, Basutoland is due to receive its independence next year. Its position is hardly enviable. A bleak highland waste, inhabited almost entirely by blacks, Basutoland (pop. 900,000) has no industry, few raw materials and only the most rudimentary agriculture. It is totally dependent on South Africa, which completely surrounds it: most of its working-age men can find employment only in South African mines and factories, and the money they send home —roughly $2,800,000 a year—is its greatest single source of income.

Last week, as Basutoland counted the...

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