Diamond Mines | South Africa | Oppenheimer Page 46



	26	SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER

	giving De Beers control over the other producers by equity ownership of the shares.²³'²⁴ The possible conflict of interest between producers and distributors was met by the formation of the Diamond Corporation, the major interest in which came into the hands of the southern African producers. This still left the problem of the 'outside producers' open. It was solved by the Diamond Corporation entering into purchase agreements with them, and by the acquisition of share interests in some of them by the Anglo American Investment Trust, by the Diamond Corporation and by other companies in the De Beers Group. The magnitude of the achievement, objectively considered, speaks for itself. But it becomes greater still when the whole range of circumstances is taken into account. Though in the earlier stages Ernest Oppenheimer had a foothold in the diamond world through his connexion with one of the member firms of the Diamond Syndicate (Messrs. Dunkelsbuhler and Company) he was neither a partner in the firm nor a director of De Beers, the dominating producer in the Union. Nor was the Anglo American Corporation a member, originally, of the Diamond Syndicate. Nor was there then, or at any ²³ In the post-war period the Williamson Mine in Tanganyika has similarly come within the ambit of De Beers: on the sales side, the Diamond Corporation has entered into agreement with the Soviet Union. ²⁴ The organization chart in note (22) represents the situation as it was before the march of political events in Central and West Africa led to appropriate modifications which are summarized in the chairman's statement accompanying the annual report for i960, of De Beers Consolidated Mines. Mr. H. F. Oppenheimer there stated that 'all the agreements governing the central selling organization, that is to say, the Diamond Producers' Association agreement, the sales agreements between the Diamond Corporation and the Congo, Angola, Tanganyika and West African producers, and the agreements between the Diamond Producers' Association and the gem and the industrial marketing companies, expired at the end of the year. The association agreement and the association's agreement with the Diamond Purchasing and Trading Company have been renewed for five years, as have the Diamond Corporation's agreements with the Congo, Angola and Tanganyika producers. The agreement for the purchase of Russian diamonds has been extended. In West Africa, the Sierra Leone Government diamond office, for which we act as managers, is operating entirely satisfactorily and, last year the Diamond Corporation bought £10,898,000 worth of diamonds through this channel and, this year, these purchases are continuing to run at a high level. The renewal of the contract with Sierra Leone Selection Trust, which produces about 25 per cent of the diamonds mined in Sierra Leone, is still under discussion. The policy of the Government of Ghana, which has laid it down that all' diamonds produced in that country must be sold through the market in Accra, made it impossible for us to renew our contracts with the Consolidated African Selection Trust and Akim Concessions. Similar action by the Government of the Republic of Guinea prevented the continued operation of our contract with the Societe Guineenne de Recherches et d'Exploitations Minieres. The Akim and the Guinea contracts dealt with only comparatively small quantities of diamonds and, of the three contracts affected by government action in this way, it is only the ConsoUdated African Selection Trust contract which is of real importance.'