The Compound System
With gems like diamonds, where so large an intrinsic value is concentrated into so small a bulk, it is not surprising that robbery has to be guarded against in the most elaborate manner. The Illicit Diamond Buying (I.D.B.) laws are very stringent, and the searching, rendered easy by the " compounding " of the natives which I shall describe presently is of the most drastic character (Fig. 6). It is, in fact, very difficult for a native employee to steal diamonds; even were he to succeed, it would be almost impossible to dispose of them, as a potential buyer would prefer to secure the safe reward for detecting a theft rather than run the serious risk of doing convict work on the Cape Town Breakwater for a couple of years. I heard of a native who, secreting a diamond worth several hundreds of pounds, after trying unsuccessfully to sell it, handed it back to the manager 36
