FROM CRISIS TO CHAIRMANSHIP OF DE BEERS 209
menced.'
In the memorandum he signed on 14 December, he urged that the scheme
had been designed to meet certain specific objections raised by
Viallate: '. . . in view of Mr. Viallate's statement that the De Beers
company could in no circumstances incur a greater liability than
.£1,500,000 it was essential to interest the other producers in the
provisions of the balance of the capital of the company.' Further, the
Syndicate, by agreeing to share the diamond business with the
producers, 'was undoubtedly giving the producers very valuable
consideration. The attitude of the London directors. . . appears to
constitute not only a refusal to admit that claim but the putting
forward of a claim for favoured terms for the company.' The tone of the
discussion seemed to convey a 'distinct suggestion that the Syndicate
is anti-De Beers and anti- the producers generally, in spite of the
fact that the members of the Syndicate are the principal shareholders
in those companies'. The last word remained with the Kimberley
directors: 'F. Hirschhorn', they cabled on 17 December, 'who has just
returned from Johannesburg, has communicated to us S. B. Joel's and Sir
Ernest Oppenheimer's views, which are that there should be a general
board to look after the common good without party interests, and
although our cable also conveys this [they] are not parties to this
cable. We must realize that we are all in one boat and it is the only
way to lead to the successful formation of the company. . . .' At the
end of the year the Kimberley board was still hoping to 'reopen matter
early in the new year'.
♦ X ♦
The
year 1929 did not open auspiciously. On 22 January London was telling
Kimberley that 'we see no advantage in participation in Syndicate
purchase in default of formation buying and selling company'. They were
told by Kimberley that 'Sir Ernest Oppenheimer tells us that as far as
Syndicate is concerned negotiations for buying selling company are at
an end and that any further conversations must be started by us'.
Kimberley then reverted to the idea of a joint purchase of the
Namaqualand diamonds as 'preferable to a buying selling company in
which we have no say'—a curious line of argument which was promptly
turned down by London.
The negotiations were now to take a dramatic turn. Lord Bess-borough, on the suggestion of Morgan Grenfell and Company,
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