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SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
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This
is particularly inadvisable when we remember that all recent
discoveries of importance, whether they were South West Africa, Angola,
Congo, or British Guiana, have all been big alluvial deposits. The
correct aim of the Government can only be to prevent interference with
the small man; the exemption from the operation of the act should not
apply because the diamond is alluvial. The case the Government wishes
to meet by exempting alluvial, as they do under clause 19, would really
be met not by exempting alluvial, but by laying it down that a person
producing, say, less than a given amount a year, or who, better still,
works by himself, or with his family, should not be interfered with.
But we are not justified in exempting alluvial just because they are
alluvial diamonds. It may be necessary at some future time to negotiate
with people in foreign countries who produce alluvial diamonds for
limitation of output, but what argument can we have if we specially
exempt our alluvial in this bill?
This was a striking example of his prescience in these matters.
As regards control, he admitted that there was some case for it, in the light of recent history:
...
I know how wearisome the recent negotiations were, how the diamond
trade was actually endangered through internal dissension among the
producers, and how the uncompromising attitude of the Syndicate, secure
in the belief that no one could successfully compete with them, lost
two months' trade to the producing companies, and thereby considerable
revenue to the country. I can understand that the Minister of Mines now
says: 'I will never again run this risk. I want to have the power, if
the producers cannot agree among themselves, to step in and settle the
matter. If I have the power then these dissensions will not take place,
and prompt settlements will be arrived at between the producers.' If I
correctly interpret the Minister's intentions, then he ought to make it
clear in the wording of the various clauses dealing with possible
control that he will only interfere if the producers cannot agree
among themselves. If that were done, a great deal of the objection to
Government interference would be removed.
But
for the proposed Diamond Control Board he had no good word to say. If
it were merely a question of creating a competitive mechanism of
purchase, then, if the Government did not mind finding the very
considerable amount of money involved, which in times of depression and
crisis might amount to seven million pounds 'in order to carry the
stocks which such a control board will have to accumulate', and were
prepared to incur the financial risks, then 'the producers could have
no objection . . . the more competition the better prices the producers
would obtain . . . but that is not the sort of diamond business the
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