TO THE FORMATION OF THE NEW SYNDICATE I55
.
. . The taking over of stocks was very smooth and I am glad to be able
to say that we have sold so readily that the outlay of money is, as I
anticipated, only very temporary. . . . You need not fear any
unpleasant surprises in the accounts and although we can only make a
very small profit in the taking over, we are, particularly as the
market is very good, secure from any losses. Some profit there will be.
. . .
While
these negotiations were going on, the new Syndicate was arranging for
offices in Kiniberley in time for the real beginning of the new
business on 1 January 1926. (At this time, nothing more was said of the
proposed South African company mentioned in the telegram, cited above,
of 11 July.)
The
'new' Syndicate was composed, in the first instance, of Barnato
Brothers with a 45 per cent quota, and of Anglo American Corporation
and Dunkelsbubler and Company with a joint and several' participation
of 45 per cent; the remaining 10 per cent went to the Johannesburg
Consolidated Investment Company. For the first time Ernest
Oppen-heimer's name appears among the names of the partners in
Dunkels-buhler and Company. There were later to be sub-participants in
the Syndicate, but two firms of big standing in the diamond trade were
destined no longer to play a part.
As
a result of the re-negotiated inter-producers' agreement, De Beers held
a quota of sales of 51 per cent, Jagersfontein 10 per cent, the Premier
(Transvaal) Mine 18 per cent and the Consolidated Diamond Mines of
South West Africa 21 per cent. The 'outside' producers in South West
Africa were allocated a quota of £200,000 per annum, or 3 per cent of
the total sales of diamonds to the Syndicate by the 'big four', but the
amount, in absolute terms, was not to exceed the figures first named.
There
were, of course, clauses relating to the division of profits and to the
amounts to be purchased. But there were also two new and important
additions to the obligations imposed on the Syndicate. First, the ratio
of sales to purchases of 'outside' diamonds (i.e. other than diamonds
from the producers named in the agreement) was not to exceed the ratio
of sales to purchases of the named producers. Secondly, 'there shall be
no modification, revocation or cession of this agreement without the
approval in writing of the Minister of Mines and Industries of the
Union of South Africa'. The agreement was to run for a period of five
years from 1 January 1926.
Ernest
Oppenheimer had now taken a first, great step towards the attainment of
his ambitions. But he was not yet in full control of the
