naturally
realized the full import of Mr. Joel's unfortunate illness, and how
very serious it would be in the present difficult circumstances of the
diamond trade if, before a new basis were created, the diamond world
should unfortunately receive a terrific shock in the death of Mr. Joel.
Furthermore,
we found that other parties had already approached Barnato Brothers
with the object of acquiring their Jagersfontein shares. We know that
if Jagersfontein got into strange hands they would have been a very
great nuisance to the other producers, because Jagersfontein, being the
one mine in the Free State, would undoubtedly have the sympathy of any
Government.
As
you know, in March last we arrived at a settlement with the
Government. I knew that we could come to an understanding with them
then because there were no differences between the producers, and
because the spokesman for the various diamond-mining companies was one
person. Failure would have been unpreventable if we were not unanimous.
Therefore, we had the position that we knew control by one strong
corporation, which by tradition should be De Beers, was essential in
order to have unanimity among the producers. We had no desire to rush
the scheme through, but we wanted to be sure that all the other parties
were committed to it, and Lord Bessborough and I agreed to recommend it
to the board of the De Beers company, and it was arranged that I should
submit it to the board when I came out in September. . . .
The
whole world is going through an enormous crisis, which is really a
commodity crisis, and we had to face the position of having to find a
new basis upon which to carry on the diamond trade, because it was
perfectly apparent that in consequence of Mr. Joel's health and the
general condition which had arisen that the Syndicate, as such, could
not carry on. It was perfectly clear that if a sound basis was to be
found an arrangement had to be made so that the money in the business
would always be available. Here we have the Diamond Corporation scheme
which is really the old buying and selling company. ... A sum of
£10,000,000 has been found by the people who are now the Syndicate and
it is in the business for the protection of the trade. In order to
induce people to have these enormous commitments, it was really
necessary to have a composite scheme. We feel that if the diamond trade
is to be sound two things are essential. First, some corporation,
preferably the De Beers company, must be the leader so far as the
production is concerned. Secondly, it was necessary to have an
organization which commanded the money, the staff, the equipment and
the knowledge to carry on the trade, and at the same time assure the
capital necessary. The two objects that we had in view were that De
Beers company should be the leader in the diamond production so as to
remove any difference of opinion, and further that we should be able to
announce to the trade that the whole diamond production is controlled
by De Beers, that permanent
