will
be brought about, and I see no reason, if wc continue our diamond
policy, why we should not play a leading role in such an operation.
It
is seldom, indeed, that so clearly defined an ambition should
ultimately have so fully been satisfied. From an early date Ernest
Oppenheimer had also intimated his ambitions to his shareholders. As
early as the third ordinary general meeting on 6 May 1920, he desired,
he said,
to
reiterate my firm belief in a great industrial and agricultural future
for this country, and, in consequence, I am satisfied that the right
policy for this corporation to pursue is to investigate any attractive
industrial proposition that presents itself and not merely to confine
its activities to mining enterprises. The Anglo American Corporation
should be, and is, ready and anxious to play its part in the industrial
development of South Africa.
At
that time the national income of South Africa was estimated at £178
million (exclusive, that is, of Native reserves and locations). In
1938-9 the net national income had risen to £364 million, and in 1956-7
it was estimated at £1,902 million. Making allowance for the rise of
prices due to the war and post-war monetary changes, that figure is
approximately £560 million in pre-war terms. To this rise the efforts
of men like Ernest Oppenheimer had contributed not a little: directly
through extension of the interests of the Anglo American Corporation
(and after the war, of De Beers Consolidated Mines) into the industrial
field, and indirectly through the impetus which mining development gave
to the economic development generally— the most striking instance, so
far as South Africa is concerned, being the opening up of the Orange
Free State gold-field; though, looking a httle farther afield, the
development of the Rhodesian Copperbelt is an equally, if not an even
more important, illustration of the same thesis.
The
present activities of the Anglo American Corporation and its
subsidiaries cover a very wide field. Gold and diamonds; cobalt,
uranium, vanadium, iron, copper, coal, platinum and other metals and
minerals; industrial activities of various kinds and merchant banking;
estate management; consultancy and secretarial services, not only for
the constituent enterprises but also for 'outside' firms and bodies—
the mere catalogue of activities is sufficiently impressive. And even
if, from the legal, administrative and financial point of view, De
Beers Consolidated Mines can be regarded as a separate undertaking, yet
the activities of De Beers and its affiliates have greatly expanded and
