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SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
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differences
of opinion. These did not concern so much the more narrowly technical
aspects of the problem, such as the position of the selling agents vis-a-vis the
'pool' board, or the question of whether the Diamond Corporation should
be paid interest on the very large capital locked up for the time being
in the shape of unsaleable diamonds. Even the vexed question of the
inability of the Diamond Corporation to maintain the 'ratio' did not
create as much trouble as might have been expected, since the Minister
admitted that it was impossible, things being what they were, for the
corporation to maintain the relationship of 5 to 3. But some dangerous
ideas were thrown out which Ernest Oppenheimer had to combat. The
Minister was wedded to the idea that an international conference should
be called to discuss the relationships between the Union producers
(including the South African Government) and the outside producers, and
it must be admitted that in 1914 there had been such a conference,
resulting in the draft agreement of that year; moreover, a certain
measure of support was given to the idea by elements within De Beers
itself. Ernest Oppenheimer would have nothing to do with the idea. He
said that
he
thought that such a conference would certainly do no good and might
possibly do a great deal of harm. . . . The outside producers would
come to such a conference not with the idea of decreasing their share
of the trade, but of increasing it, and inducing the Union Government
to limit their own production further and in some way to stop or
decrease the production from the alluvial diggings. . . . The deposits
of the outside producers were worked at a much lower cost than anything
in the Union, with the possible exception of certain limited deposits
in Namaqualand. . . . Any attempt to coerce the outside producers was
doomed to failure.
The
idea of an international conference was not unreasonable, whatÂever the
difficulties involved. But some of the ideas which were advanced were
certainly the reverse of reasonable. The Minister, at one stage, asked
whether it would not be possible 'to get a bigger share of the trade
for the Union by throwing open the whole of Namaqualand and trying to
produce diamonds even cheaper than the Belgians and Portuguese. He
quite realized of course that such an action would mean the end, anyhow
for a large number of years, of the present big Union producers.' What
else could Ernest Oppenheimer do than reply, as he did, that this
'would be suicidal, and that a big new production at this juncture
would cause such a panic that the diamond trade would come to an end
and no one would sell diamonds'. At one stage it was even suggested
that the Diamond Corporation, at that time suffering
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