FROM CRISIS TO CHAIRMANSHIP OF DE BEERS 171
it
was not known when, and under what conditions, prospecting would be
allowed to be resumed, made such acquisitions highly speculative. The
prohibition came at a time also, when the 'discoverers' of the
Namaqualand fields had not been awarded their definitive legal rights.
The element of administrative discretion involved in the situation was
thus greatly increased at a time when confidence in the industry was
already seriously undermined.
The
fact is that though the general object of the legislation introduced in
the course of the parliamentary session of 1927 was 'to consohdate and
amend the laws in force in the several provinces of the Union relating
to prospecting and mining for precious stones, to amend in certain
respects the laws relating to the diamond trade and to provide for
matters incidental thereto', the very scope of the measure and the
serious inroads which it made on established rights in certain
directions made it, for the time being, an agency of unsettlement,
adding to the difficulties of the times, rather than an instrument of
tranquilhzation. The terms of the proposed legislation aroused bitter
feelings; it was introduced at a time when party opposition had been
exacerbated by the proposed Flag Bill, the Minister in charge was
unconcihatory and the bill failed to pass the Upper House. It was
finally forced through later in the year at a joint session of the two
Houses, without the amendments which were pressed upon the Government.
The very failure to pass the bill in the first instance added to the
difficulties of the diamond industry: in Holland and Belgium, the
traditional cutting centres, production was suspended, and thus the
Diamond Syndicate, already faced with the necessity of absorbing
increased production, also found its stock accumulating through the
diminution of sales.
The
bill, the second reading of which the Minister of Mines moved on 25
April 1927, was long and complicated: it and its schedules occupied 3 7
pages of the Government Gazette, and it remained long and
complicated until it was finally assented to by the Governor General as
the Precious Stones Act, No. 44 of 1927. 'The main principle underlying
this measure', said the Minister, 'is that alluvial diggings, subject
to the interests of the State, and a fair participation of the State
where necessary and desirable, should remain the reserve and preserve
of the small man.'
The
principle of reserving alluvial digging for the 'small man', whether
justifiable or not as a measure of social and economic justice, did not
in itself meet the essential needs of the situation as it was in 1927,
namely, the control of output which was, however, also provided
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