the
course of the year 1918 he became resident director of the
Consolidated Mines Selection Company in Johannesburg, the chairman of
the company explaining at the annual meeting in May 1919:
The
increase in our management work in Johannesburg seemed to require a
change in our organization there, and, to carry out the plans we have
in view, it was thought desirable to make Mr. E. Oppenheimer a director
of the company, resident in South Africa, and who has lately returned
there with a full knowledge of the London board in the conduct of the
work in hand.
♦ V ♦
Though
no record remains of the very earliest stages of the negotiations, it
is clear that by April 1917 the project had advanced considerably.
Writing to Herbert Hoover on the 17th of that month, Ernest
Oppenheimer, after first explaining the situation on the East Rand, and
the favourable position of the Consolidated Mines Selection Company,
went on to say that:
In
consideration for valuable assistance given to the Consolidated Mines
Selection Company, they have come to an arrangement with me, giving me
the right to participate on original terms. . . .
All
those rights I have agreed to transfer to a new company to be formed by
me on my return to South Africa, of which company I shall be permanent
chairman and managing director resident in South Africa. . . .
The chief object of forming the company is to clearly define the interests of the various participants . . .
If
American capital wishes to obtain a footing in South African mining
business, the easiest course will be to acquire an interest in our
company.
Yet,
however, much as we would welcome American capital, we could not afford
to simply sell such shares in the new company to them at par. You will
have seen from the foregoing that we do not propose to take bonus
shares or commissions, etc. Selling shares at par would, therefore,
mean parting with a valuable contract—which it has taken years of hard
work to obtain— without special consideration. If, after considering
the position above described you feel inclined to make me some
proposition, I shall feel pleased to discuss it with my friends. . . .
A
month later an exchange of telegrams between Ernest Oppenheimer and W.
L. Honnold shows that, up to that time, though the idea of the company
and of American participation in it had been agreed upon, the former
was not yet fully advised of the personalities
