WORLD CRISIS AND WORLD LEADERSHIP 269
The board appreciate the loyal manner in which the employees have co-operated in the past, and they feel sure
that, in view of the gravity of the situation, they will realize that
the step which has been decided upon is absolutely unavoidable.
Similar steps, involving a reduction in operations, are being taken by other producing companies.
On the next day, Friday, the Premier (Transvaal) Mine also announced that it was closing down on 31 March.
♦ X ♦
Naturally, so sensational a piece of news received its due measure of attention from the Press. On the evening of Thursday, l8 February, the political correspondent of the Ran d Daily Mail had
an interview with the Minister of Mines; next day the paper pubhshed
what it rightly called 'a remarkable statement' by the Minister.
According to the journal, the Minister said:
The
Government have no official information about the closing of these
mines. Before they can be closed six months' notice, according to our
agreement, must be given; and six months' notice has not been given.
If these mines are closed, then De Beers will have to pay the penalties.17
The Minister, in the course of the subsequent debate, denied the validity of the story as presented by the Rand Daily Mail. Be that as it may, the fact remains that between 19 February and 2 March 1932 no official dementi was
issued, although on Saturday, 20 February, the newspaper in question
pubhshed a further statement by De Beers, issued on Friday, the 19th,
giving a full account of what had been happening (it may be added that
the original De Beers draft, corrected by Ernest Oppenheimer himself,
is still in existence):
The attention of the directors of the De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. has been drawn to an article appearing in the Rand Daily Mail of 19 February, in which the Minister of Mines and Industries is reported to have said that
17
Ernest Oppenheimer, speaking in the Assembly on 2 March, recalled that
'at 12 o'clock on the night of Thursday, 18 February, I was called from
my bed to the telephone to speak to a representative of the Rand Daily Mail with
regard to the closing down of De Beers. I was informed that the Hon.
the Minister of Mines and Industries had given the political
correspondent of that paper' the statement cited above. He added: 'I
could hardly believe my ears, and feeling certain that some mistake had
been made, I refused to make any comment on the matter. When I woke up
the next morning I at first thought that the whole episode must have
been a dream, and it was not until I saw the morning paper that I knew
that it had, in effect, occurred.'
