FROM CRISIS TO CHAIRMANSHIP OF DE BEERS 180
the
nature of the 'compromise' which it suggested. In effect, it meant the
creation of two parallel organizations: one dealing with diamond
'mines' in the technical sense, the other grouping the new alluvial
interests. One must not find the origin of this 'compromise' in a
considered review of the technological aspects of diamond production:
from this angle there was something to be said for it, provided that
the two organizations were guided by a common head. In fact, it was an
attempt to conserve the old De Beers tradition, expressed in an undated
cable to De Beers, London, from Kimberley but clearly belonging to the
period of the alluvial discoveries, that 'De Beers policy has always
been not to prospect for or work alluvial but to watch carefully for
any indications of new mines'.
Experience
was to prove over the next seven years that, despite the good
intentions of Government to preserve alluvial diamond production as a
'diggers' democracy', technological developments were steadily
undermining the distinction between diamond 'mining' and diamond
'digging'. In the Lichtenburg area alluvial digging was becoming
'capitalistic', in the sense that the small man was on the way out. As
Dr. Boetz was to point out in one of his periodical reports, under date
of 13 August 1929: 'The surface has been scraped, but what the small
digger produced previously, as well as the apparently lower average
contents of the treated gravel, has been fully replaced by the
increased quantity of raw material handled by diggers owning machinery
and some capital.' Moreover, Nature defeated any attempt to maintain
the legal distinctions incorporated in the 1927 Act between 'mines' and
'diggings'. Not only were the alluvial diamonds at times concentrated
in so-called 'potholes', but the geologists gradually made clear the
existence of'fissures', embryo pipes, which should have been treated
administratively as mines. As they were not, revenue was lost to the
State, output was greatly increased and the position of the mining
companies made more difficult. On the Vaal River also 'capitalistic
exploitation', in the shape of the systematic building of dams and
breakwaters for the exploration of the river bed was assuming
increasing importance as new companies entered that field. It is clear,
then, that if unified direction was necessary, the formation of a
parallel organization was not really the appropriate instrument.
Whatever
the technical merits or demerits of the 'compromise', for the time
being no progress whatever was made. In July 1927, it was decided at
Kimberley to send Sir David Harris to London, 'the views
