TO THE FORMATION OF THE NEW SYNDICATE 113
♦ III ♦
By
1919, there were already signs that production outside the Union and
South West Africa might become a serious threat: Belgian Congo
production in that year had reached 215,000 metric carats and Angola
production was nearly 100,000 metric carats in 1920. For the time
being, however, South African production as a whole dominated the
situation, with an aggregate output of approximately 3,200,000 carats,
of which the Union's share was 2,660,000. Of this total, again, the
'big three'—De Beers, Jagersfontein and the Premier Mine—produced some
2,118,500 carats: 81 per cent of Union production and 65 per cent of
South African production. The output of South West Africa was some 18-4
per cent of the total production: a percentage which it was obviously
impossible to ignore. (See table overleaf.)
For
the moment, however, the diamond industry was experiencing an era of
great prosperity, as a result of the world-wide 'post-war boom' and,
for the first time in South African diamond history, it was possible,
in the spring of 1919, to arrive at common agreements—between the main
producers themselves (including the Administrator of South West Africa,
as representing the local South West African producers) and between
them and the Syndicate. These agreements were the fruit of the first of
the conferences which were to be so significant a feature of the
inter-war years. For a period of five years, i.e. until the end of
1924, the main producers bound themselves to sales quotas, and to limit
sales to the Diamond Syndicate only. Any shortfall in production by any
one producer could be made up pro rata by the other producers, and the
quota of each producer might be made up out of stocks; but a shortfall
in any production period could not be made up in any subsequent period.
The Administrator of South West Africa was to determine the quantity of
diamonds to be contributed by individual producers in the territory.
Finally, no agreement was to be made with the Syndicate by any one
producer without the concurrence of all parties, relative to sales
after the termination of the agreement.
The
inter-producers' agreement provided for the following quotas: The De
Beers Group 51 per cent and the Premier Mine 18 per cent. Jagersfontein
had a quota of 10 per cent and South West Africa was given an aggregate
quota of 21 per cent. It was provided in the separate agreements made
with the Syndicate that for the first three months of
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
