knowledge
and experience of the highest order in business and of the
desirability, therefore, of endowing and furthering research, both
within the world of business and at universities and technological
institutes. His benefactions, as a matter of fact, extended far beyond
the limits which mere considerations of possible profitability in
industry would have dictated. It was, perhaps, this belief in expertise
and in science, or to use a wider term, in capacity, which
dictated his attitude towards promotion and appointments in his
concerns. He had no use for the conventional 'guinea-pig'; nor did he
believe that promotion from within to the boards of his companies
should constitute a fitting reward for men who had passed their prime.
This did not mean that he was unwilling to recruit from outside, but
when he did so, it was because the persons chosen had had special
knowledge and experience— in mining, in finance, in colonial
administration or in government service; and when he promoted inside
his organization, he did so on grounds of merit. In later days, he
naturally could not know personally more than a small percentage of the
staffs of Ins various enterprises, but towards all of them, when he
came in contact with them, he maintained a standard of courtesy and
consideration and kindliness which compelled affection. He was
respected for his achievements: he was (it is not too strong a word to
use) loved for himself.
He
had begun at the bottom of the ladder. There are very few men who can
altogether forget what this implies in the way of personal strain,
however eminent and rich they may subsequently become. Even in later
years the vicissitudes through which the diamond industry was to pass
imposed at times a severe strain upon his personal resources.
Altogether apart from the lessons enforced by the difficulties of
raising funds for the mining industry, by the state of capital markets
and the uncertainties of the industry itself, his attitude towards the
problem of finance was coloured by individual experience and led to a
conclusion as to policy in financial matters sharply at variance with
what might be considered the proper course of action in an age of
organized financial facilities. The supreme need of a mining house, he
held, was to maintain, at all times, an adequate margin of liquidity,
not only so as to be able to take advantage of new opportunities, if
and when they arose, but to prevent dependence on the vagaries of the
money market or—as in the case of diamonds—to prevent a collapse of
prices by forced sales in a weak market. But this principle was
perfectly consistent with very bold action when, in his opinion,
circumstances called for it. When, at the end of the Second World War,
the com-
