confidence,
though by so greatly increasing the administrative powers of
Government, it added to the anxieties of the future profoundly.
Meanwhile, 1927 was to be critical for him in other, more direct, ways.
♦ V ♦
While
the parliamentary session of 1927 was dragging on, Ernest Oppenheimer
was also engaged upon a scries of transactions and negotiations of a
most arduous kind. Great plans were forming in his mind and called for
all his powers of action and for all his resourcefulness.
There
were impersonal and personal interests involved in the situation. His
courage never failed him, but there can be no question that, during
1926 and 1927 he was at times thoroughly alarmed at the immediate
prospects before the diamond industry and had come to the definite
conclusion that there must be a unification of command. 'The diamond
trade is passing through a very serious crisis', he wrote to the
secretary of De Beers, in the course of a very important letter on 8
May 1927, 'which differs from all past depressions in the trade in that
the cause is not a depression in "world trade" but an overproduction
of diamonds. In my opinion the problem facing the trade can only be
solved by a single institution tackling the various problems instead of
several as at present. De Beers is to my mind the one institution that
should take the lead.' But this was a matter for the future: he had had
to strengthen not only Ins own position but that of the industry as a
whole, by dealing with the emergent situation in Lichtenburg and in
Namaqualand.
As
far as the Lichtenburg area was concerned, he had already in 1926 sent
down one of his best geologists, Dr. Bectz, and was in full possession
of the facts regarding actual and potential production in all the
promising properties. Two companies in particular were already
operating, Carrig Diamonds and Treasure Trove, the latter company in
particular being extraordinarily productive for the time being. Ernest
Oppenheimer took advantage of Solly Joel's presence in South Africa to
take a great step in co-operation with the latter—the acquisition of
what was tantamount to a controlling interest in the potential
production of the Lichtenburg area. On 19 January 1927 he disclosed the
whole story to his brother, Louis, in London:
