though
his own activities were for the moment concentrated on the new nhning
projects on the Far East Rand, in negotiations for and on behalf of the
Consolidated Mines Selection Company, and on the formation of the Anglo
American Corporation, this did not in any way imply any break with
Dunkelsbuhler and Company, who were in fact closely connected with
Consolidated Mines Selection Company, and with the new enterprise. The
London partners of Dunkelsbuhler and Company had indeed taken a very
active part in the formation and the subsequent development of the
Anglo American Corporation. This was fully recognized by Ernest
Oppenheimer himself. After he became a partner in the firm in October
1925, he suggested certain financial arrangements (which in the end did
not materialize) between the then three remaining partners, namely, his
elder brother Louis, Walter Dunkels and himself, on the express ground,
as he put it in a draft agreement, that 'it is an essential feature of
the position that, although naturally the directorships held by Ernest
Oppenheimer, Louis Oppenheimer and Walter Dunkels are personal
appointments, these three gentlemen, besides being partners in the
diamond operations of A. Dunkelsbuhler and Company, acted jointly in
regard to the flotation of the Anglo American Corporation' and 'it was
their combined strengths which played so important a part in the
flotation of the Anglo American Corporation and in the influence which
they have continued to exercise in the direction of the affairs of the
Anglo American Corporation'. Nor did these activities imply any change
in his own long-term ambitions, or in his own sentiments, in so far as
the diamond trade and the diamond industry were concerned; so much,
indeed, is clear from the letter addressed to his American friends,
quoted in the last chapter. All considerations of profit apart, Ernest
Oppenheimer was, and remained, passionately interested in the diamond
industry. 'It is very flattering for [certain diamond interests] to
want to see me', he wrote to Louis on 25 April 1922, 'but I think it
will be much better if you see them instead of myself, because the only
things in which I am a gambler are diamonds.' Quite late in life, he
wrote to his son Harry, under date of 8 February 1942:
We
. . . should remember that we are not owners of the various concerns,
nor are we, for the time being, diamond merchants on our own account.
It is strange that Louis, Otto and I, in spite of the fact that we have
parted with our business, still behave as if we were the owners and
worry if our advice is not taken. We have a lifelong experience, are
conscientious in
