♦ III ♦
During
the greater part of the South African autumn and winter of 1930, Ernest
Oppenheimer was in Europe. This made for greatly increased
correspondence and delay, in view of the very difficult negotiations
which were going on with the Union Government; but it meant also that
Ernest was in constant personal contact with his brother Louis, with
Barnatos and with Rothschilds, and also with the London directors of De
Beers. Later, when Ernest had returned to South Africa, the Minister of
Mines had gone overseas, and once again negotiations were thereby made
more difficult.
Two
objectives now dominated his mind: they were the immediate consequence
of the crisis through which the industry and the trade were passing,
reinforced undoubtedly by the illness of Solly Joel, and the
difficulties which might follow upon his decease. These objectives
were, first, the unification of the producing side of the industry so
far as diamond mining was concerned, under the leadership of De Beers;
secondly, the replacement of the Syndicate, as a buying organization,
by a buying and selling company or, by what came to the same thing, an
'enlarged' Syndicate. The idea of the unification of the diamond
industry under the inspiration of De Beers, had, of course, an
historical antecedent: it recalled the efforts of Cecil Rhodes in the
early days of the company, but the imminent driving force was, without
question, the threatened collapse of the industry if matters were
allowed to drift. Naturally, the formation of the 'enlarged' Diamond
Corporation in part depended on the successful outcome of the
negotiations with Government in regard to the inter-producers' and
sales agreements, since the cession of the arrangements with the
Diamond Syndicate depended on Government consent, while the
reorganization of the internal structure of the industry depended, in
the first instance, on winning the assent of his colleagues.
On
16 July 1930 the Kimberley board considered the matter of fuller
integration. Ernest Oppenheimer was in London, but the scheme was
expressly declared to be his in a cable addressed to the board by the
London transfer office, wliich added that 'we consider adoption of this
scheme very advisable. N. M. Rothschild and Sons, Rothschild Freres,
Paris, and Morgan Grenfell and Company fully agree.' The scheme was
complicated. It provided, first, for the acquisition by De Beers from
Barnato Brothers of 370,000 shares in the Jagersfontein
