WORLD CRISIS AND WORLD LEADERSHIP 253
of
the outside producers. On the first day of the conference, the Minister
went so far as to say that he thought the request to relieve the
Diamond Corporation of the obligation to take immediate delivery of
£1,200,000 and to stagger the amount over the remaining period of the
original contract 'a perfectly justifiable request, but what', he
added, 'would be the position if you had to close down on i January
[1932]?' To this Ernest Oppenheimer simply replied that 'we would have
to close down if we do not sell -£600,000 of goods, which does not even
cover our total expenditure'. However, the main point at issue, as at
the De Aar conference, was the attitude to be taken up by the
Government and it was impossible to get the Minister to commit himself,
though there was an implied threat. He said:
I
intend from now on to let you go on as you suggest, as you propose to
do, but to watch from day to day what the position is. If the position
does not ease, and if that is the only measure you can adopt, well, we
cannot expect you to do more. ... If you give to the outside countries
the same treatment as you are giving to the Union, well, then I suppose
we will not have much to complain about, but I do not think that from
the information which we have before us now you can expect us to agree
to proposals or bind ourselves to the proposals.
Naturally, Ernest Oppenheimer protested that that attitude was not altogether reasonable:
.
. . These conditions were insisted upon after discussions which lasted
for over a year, and in practice they proved unworkable. Now, when we
come to the Government and ask for its consent to certain proposals
they will not say 'yes' or 'no'. We are placed in the position that you
hold the sword of Damocles over our head, and tins you must agree is by
no means satisfactory.
Mr.
Fourie, though perfectly friendly in Iris choice of terms, would not
budge from his standpoint. 'I do not think that this is the time to
make new arrangements. It is not fair towards the industry when things
are right down to try and negotiate a new agreement for a lengthy
period' (though in fact all that the Government was being asked to do
was to agree to an ad interim arrangement). He went on:
My attitude really is this—in a time such as we are going through we should cease hostilities if you like and suspend for this period judgment on the operations, and you do the best you can. The
Government will see that you are doing your best, and if you are doing
it you are not doing any wrong and will not get into trouble. If, however, you were to take an undue advantage of the position the Government is free to say that you shall not do it.
