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238
SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
This
rationalization of production and marketing will, I am sure, be
welcomed by the European diamond-cutting centres, who will be inspired
with a fresh confidence as to the intrinsic and stable value of the
diamond. Moreover, the understandable desire of the Government of the
Union of South Africa to establish diamond cutting in South Africa has
not been lost sight of, and, as you will have seen from the public
statement made by the Minister of Mines and Industries, arrangements
under which South African diamond cutters will be supplied with rough
diamonds have been placed on a satisfactory basis, and without
detriment to the trade as a whole. As further evidence of the
Government's sympathy with the diamond trade, I may again mention its
intention, as announced by Mr. Fourie, to limit the sale of State
diamonds proportionately to the sales of conference producers'
diamonds, and that Union Government sales other than to South African
cutters will be made only to the Diamond Syndicate.
...
I feel that it is desirable that I should summarize the present
position in regard to world production and sales. The sales of the big
South African producers are dependent on the volume of world trade,
while practically all other sources of production are limited on the
basis of a maximum yearly figure. This happy position has been reached
as the result of the wholehearted and far-sighted co-operation of those
in control of production outside the Union, coupled with the firm
attitude taken up by the Union Government in regard to alluvial
production.
When
it is remembered that all future sales of conference producers'
diamonds will be effected by a South African company, the old
accusation that South Africa was being exploited by overseas diamond
interests should be silenced once and for all.
Nevertheless,
official ratification of the agreements had not been obtained, and a
new series of difficulties arose. Owing to the problems facing the
Premier (Transvaal) company, special terms had to be negotiated with
and at the instigation of the Government, which was itself greatly
interested in the finances of the company, and these special terms
(which were inconsistent with the terms of the agreements, only just
negotiated) had to be sanctioned by all the producers,
including the Administrator of South West Africa. Another point of
difference arose over the refusal of the Syndicate to take delivery of
any diamonds in respect of the period July-December 1930, their
contention being that the producers had all agreed to waive their
rights in respect to this delivery in return for a guarantee that the
Syndicate would take, in each six-monthly period of 1931, a minimum of
f 1,200,000. The Minister of Mines repudiated the suggestion that he
had agreed to this; in any case, the assent of the Administrator of
South West Africa was also required and this he, for a time, refused to
give. Relations between
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