FROM CRISIS TO CHAIRMANSHIP OF DE BEERS 185
a quarter interest in the syndicate owned by Dr. Merensky and Sir Abe Bailey and others for £225,000. ...
Sir Ernest added that as Mr. S. B. Joel and Mr. Louis Oppenheinier
thought the price too high—everybody seemed to be against him—he
proposed to let the option lapse, but he thought it would be the
greatest blunder we had ever made.
As
a matter of fact, he had no intention of letting the hesitations of the
De Beers directors stand in the way. In the same letter, the London
directors of De Beers were informed that on 4 April the assistant
secretary of De Beers, then at Cape Town, had cabled Kimberley as
follows:
'Sir
Ernest Oppenheinier informed me that he has bought on account
Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa Limited . . . 10,000
shares at £15 per share. . . .' This cable is of importance: the
purchase (already previously referred to) was to be an element of
embitterment in the subsequent negotiations between Ernest Oppenheinier
and De Beers, though, in fact, in the end the 10,000 shares were not
taken up by Consolidated Diamond Mines but were retained by Ernest
Oppenheinier himself. On the same occasion as this piece of
information was conveyed, Ernest Oppenheinier 'also informed us that
on behalf of Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa Limited,
he had pegged the whole of the north bank of the Orange River ... and
Dr. Wagner's, Dr. Merensky's and Dr. Beetz's opinions are that the run
of the ground goes right through into the Spengebiet in South
West, which the Consolidated company intend to prospect.' Obviously, if
the opinions of these experts were correct, the value of the
Consohdated ground would be greatly enhanced. The communication of
these facts makes it clear that if a unification of interests was
desired by Ernest Oppenheimer, De Beers could not complain that any
information was being withheld.
During
the next two months, i.e. April and May 1927, the policy of unification
of all diamond interests in the hands of De Beers was vigorously
pursued by Ernest Oppenheimer in communications to his brother Louis,
to Solly Joel and to the board of De Beers.5 He made it
clear that he would not be willing to subordinate Anglo American
Corporation to De Beers in diamond matters without his own claim to be
the recognized leader of the diamond industry being acknowledged and
he insisted that if there were to be a 'deal' at all, it would have to
be an over-all one—at the same time he urged with all the
persuasiveness he could command that the course of action which he
5 The correspondence is reproduced in extenso in appendix I to this chapter.
