58
SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
Colony
. . . and I have always remembered that we shall have to bear the first
burden of a bad financial position in this country. We have to show the
people here that we continually feel that, while the wealth of the
country is drawn thousands of miles away, such a company as this has
great financial responsibility, and equally with the Colony has a duty
to perform in recognizing its obligations. ... I think . . . also, I
shall receive your support as to my position, in helping towards the
production of this enormous wealth, the company being half-partners so
to speak with the Colony with reference to its exports, remembering
that it is our duty not to act to the detriment of the shareholders but
at the same time to perform certain public acts in the interests of the
country and remembering also that the prosperity of the country
involves our prosperity.
Taking
the specific economic interests of De Beers into account, it is not
difficult on purely business grounds to justify certain of the
'non-diamond' investments. The cost and availability of fuel was a
standing problem in the early days: this sufficiently explains
investment in collieries and in railway building. De Beers had become a
great landlord: this explains and justifies experiments in
cattle-raising and horse-breeding. The company was, in essence, a
mining concern: this explains the taking up of gold-claims and the
search for payable gold-and copper-mines. As a mining concern, also, it
was greatly affected by the cost of explosives: this justifies the
creation of a dynamite factory to circumvent the 'dynamite monopoly'.
It
must never be overlooked, finally, that Kimberley was a 'company town'
in a very real sense: the livelihood and the well-being of its
inhabitants were bound up with the mines. The early days of
unification had undoubtedly, together with other factors, produced a
serious problem of unemployment, and the introduction of the compound
system9 had affected the retailers' profits. Inevitably, De
Beers was forced to recognize a special responsibility towards the town
and its problems, and, in fact, did so. Thus it was brought into close
relations with the municipality, which was not without bearing on
Ernest Oppenheimer's career when he became prominent in municipal
politics and mayor of the town.
9
The 'compound system' consists in the segregation of African workers in
residential quarters provided by the employers, involving a denial of
access to free purchases of food etc. in the open market, though not
necessarily implying that the employer provides compulsory rations; the
alternative being that the worker buys his food through stores provided
by the employer, which is, in fact, the system adopted by De Beers
Consolidated Mines.
