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226
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SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
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points
in dispute were rapidly disposed of, though he refused to give way on
the issue of whether the initial price paid to the producers should be
5 per cent or 10 per cent below the net market price, arguing that
'what is changed is the safety factor; and the safety factor in times
like these, with the colossal stocks which we have, is a very essential
one'. In the end agreement was reached and Ernest Oppenheimer started
sending explanatory and congratulatory telegrams to his friends and
colleagues—to the Syndicate, to De Beers and to the Congo producers.4
In
cabling Brussels he finished by saying that 'the diamond trade has,
therefore, been put again on a very sound basis as far as production
the world over is concerned and arrangements made hold out promise,
once market revives, of prosperous time for all diamond producers'. He
received renewed assurances of support from M. Jadot in Brussels. He
was about to leave for London, no doubt with the conviction that the
worst was over. In fact, however, the struggle with the Government had
only begun, though the assent of Government to the view that it also
should have a quota marked an important step forward. But at this stage
it had not yet been agreed that the Diamond Corporation should replace
the Syndicate as the buyer of conference producers' diamonds; nor had
it been agreed that, if this solution were rejected, the alternative of
a South African company to buy South African production be accepted.
4
The general position at the end of the March conference was admirably
summed up in the statement made to the De Beers board on 3 April 1930:
'The secretary reported that at the conference held at Cape Town during March of
this year, between representatives of the Government, the Consolidated Diamond Mines
of South West Africa Limited, the Premier (Transvaal) Diamond Mining Company
Limited, the New J agersfontein Mining and Exploration Company Limited, and this
company, the following was agreed to, namely:
(i) The quotas or shares of the trade in diamonds produced by the Government, the
diamond-producing companies referred to and this company, during the period
of four years calculated from 1 January 1931, should be as follows:
The Government . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-8% of such trade
Consolidated
Diamond Mines of South West Africa Ltd. 21-1% of such trade Premier
(Transvaal) Diamond Mining Company Ltd. .. 8-9% of such trade New
Jagersfontein Mining and Exploration Co. Ltd. .. 8-4% of such trade
This company .. ............45-8% of such trade
(ii) (a) An
inter-producers' agreement be entered into between this company and the
other producers, including the Government, upon the lines of the
existing producers' agreement, and providing for each producer being
entitled to its quota or share as aforesaid. (b) For the
purpose of carrying out the arrangements referred to, a sales agreement
be entered into with the diamond buying syndicate and this company,
upon the lines of the existing sales agreement with that syndicate.'
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