DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA 277
The largest, named the Colossus, is claimed to be larger than any other known.
A
claim of contract between the Chartered Company and the De Beers
Consolidated Mines Company made by the latter company, operated until
now against a vigorous prosecution of work in the Rhodesian district.
It was fought in the courts and decided in the Chancery division of
the High Court, February 10, 1910, against the De Beers Company.
That
the De Beers Consolidated Mines Company consider the control of these
fields a matter of vital importance, is shown by the fact that they
have since decided to take the case to the House of Lords, though the
Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal both decided in favor
of the Chartered Company, and the feeling of the settlers of Rhodesia
is strongly against the Cape Colony Company. This action of the De
Beers, however, prevents immediate development, and in the meantime
they have unloaded more diamonds on the United States during the last
year than in any year previous.
Diamonds
have been discovered in considerable quantities lately in German South
West Africa near the coast at Liideritz Bay, formerly Angra Pequena
Bay, longitude 160 E, and latitude 260 S. The
fields are located near the town of Liideritzbucht. A syndicate headed
by Senator Achelis was formed in Bremen as far back as December, 1902,
to search for diamonds in this colony. The German Colonial Company now
holds the mining rights over a territory having 300 miles of coast line
and extending 60 miles back. The Calanan's Kop Diamond Company and the
Staunch Company, each have a fifty year lease of about 15 square miles
on the
